[wesso]

Hehehe : I only wish I did have a clear mind... I just hope that the information that I am giving you is of some help and gets your car back on the road as soon as possible.

Yes to your question about the No.1 piston being TDC when the mark aligns with the incremental marker on the crank shaft pulley... That would never change unless the key has sheered off in the key way. If the mark on the bottom pulley (the one on the crank shaft) is not in line with the long mark or the zero mark on the "reference ruler" then it's a pretty good bet that the key has sheered off. Worst case scenario could also mean that there is a broken connector rod on the No.1 piston, but I doubt you are looking at anything that harsh and you would have know about it if you had dropped a con rod, so I'm pretty sure we can rule that out.

Mmmm I have just considered the events that you mentioned that led up to the problem occurring and I am getting some awful thoughts. The fact that the car performed ok for almost two days after the load stress makes me wonder what could have gone wrong :
I would be hoping for the least serious which would be a sheered key, but keep in mind that this would also mean that there should be at least a few bent valves because of the timing being so far out of whack. I would be inclined to carry out the following checks...

1. remove the distributor cap and check that the rotor button is turning when you turn the engine over (preferably by hand) You can also do a rough (estimated) check to see if the arm on the rotor button is anywhere near the pickup post for the No.1 cylinder when the timing mark is at or just before TDC.
2. You can also check for TDC of the No.1 piston by removing the spark plug and carefully inserting a pencil or something like a chop stick while the timing mark is at or just before TDC. This doesn't necessarily mean that it is on the firing stroke though.
3. If the timing marks do not align as they are supposed to then I would suggest the next step of removing the retaining bolt on the crank shaft sprocket and checking for a sheered key.

Lets just leave it at that for now so that we don't get lost and end up going around in circles. It will also give us a bit more time to see if anybody else may have a better idea of what the problem could be. I will also do a bit of searching to see what I can find out from my local mechanic.

Cheers
Wayne