dublued

so i found out about a lot of the problems all of a sudden, and now this.

i was really romping on the car the day before and the car was really hesitating in vtec around 6-7K rpm.

i had my smog done a week ago and i was told my timing was at 8 degrees, where it should have been at 15. does this have anything to do with the hesitation?

i put techron concentrate about once a month or every 3 weeks or so.

also, i was hearing a intermittent rattling sound at low rpm and after doing some searching, it could possibly be the auto tensioner.

so are all these problems related? i have a jdm engine sitting in the garage so i'm not gonna spend time doing the auto to manual swap. i'd rather just swap engines.

please advise. much appreciated

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-Omair
2004 Mazda 3 Hatchback