Timing Check

Ain't none. It's set by the crankshaft position sensor, and modified by the Engine Computer.

Caradiodoc

Sorry, it never even crossed my mind you were working on the timing chain.

First remove the upper intake manifold, valve covers, vibration damper, and timing cover.

Let's see how well I can describe this. Start by rotating the crankshaft until you see a small triangular timing mark on the left camshaft sprocket. That mark should be straight up and there should be two darker-colored chain links, one on each side of that mark.

At the same time, a small round dot on the right camshaft sprocket should be straight up and it will be in the middle of a single dark-colored link.

Next, look at the crankshaft sprocket. There should be a single dark link at about the 4:00 position. There will be a half-round mark to the left of the link, on the sprocket, and a triangular mark to the right of the link on the oil pump housing.

Resetting the tensioner requires a special tool. It has a pin to unseat the check ball so the oil can be drained out with hand pressure. Next, turn the tensioner over and insert that end into the tool and push it together to collapse it. It looks like you might be able to do all of that with a pick and not with the special tool.

Nothing is said about locking the tensioner in the retracted position with a temporary pin so it must latch by itself. Once installed, you are supposed to use a flat blade screwdriver to lightly pry the tensioner arm away from the chain, towards the tensioner, then release it. Apparently that is supposed to unlock the tensioner and it will spring out and put pressure on the arm.

The engine will be noisy for up to ten seconds after start-up.

Caradiodoc

Doesn't matter if you're on the intake or exhaust stroke. If you don't see the marks on the camshafts, just rotate the crankshaft one revolution.

To tell if you're on the compression stroke, you can buy a whistle that screws into the spark plug hole. It will tweet when the piston moves as you turn the crank by hand, and will stop tweeting when the piston gets to the top of its travel. It won't tweet on the exhaust stroke.

I'm not a driveability expert but I can offer some suggestions. Code 344 is related to the camshaft position sensor. On older cars the engine would not run with a defective camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor. My understanding is some of the newer cars will run on just one but not very well. Also, some switch from sequentially firing the six injectors one after the other at low speeds to "batch fire" at higher speeds. That means all six fire at the same time because precise timing to the intake valve opening isn't so important. On some engines one of the sensors synchronizes the spark timing and the other one is for injector timing. Based on code 344, I'd be looking at the cam sensor and its wiring. Actually there is a different code for a sensor failure. 344 is for an intermittent failure. The connector pins would be a good place to start. Use a small pick to squeeze the female pins tighter in the connector.

The 5.0 volt feed and the ground return wires are in common with both sensors so we know those circuits between the sensors and the computer are fine. That just leaves the the signal wire, the sensor, and its connector pins. The signal wire is tan / yellow and is in pin 34 of connector 2 for the powertrain control module.

If you have access to Chrysler's DRB3 scanner, it will list the cam and crank sensors under "live data" and will show "present" or "no" while the engine is cranking and running to indicate whether the signals are present. You can also use an oscilloscope to view the signal coming from the sensor.

Caradiodoc

How did it turn out? Thanks