It would be wise to pull the chain cover and completely overhaul the system. You just dodged a a really large bullet.

Really?

The pointer plate on the OM606 is not like the old engines, its a moveable part, if someone took off the waterpump and removed it without marking its placement relative to the crank pulley it will never show correct engine timing.

I doubt the engine will actually run with 20 degrees off timing, the pistons will collide with the valves.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

The water pump was replaced by the previous owner. I don't know how adjustable the timing pointer is and would only expect it to go a few degrees in either direction. After work today I'm going to check the IP timing and see if it shows the same offset the cam timing does.

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'82 300D - Light Ivory, 2nd Owner (Back in the wind April 2013!)

'95 E300D - White, grey interior. (Suffering from stuck/broken glow plugs)

Deuteronomy 22:4-
"Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again."

The same exact thing happened to my 74 240D.
The problem. The key in the governor shaft had plowed the key-way almost half way around the shaft. I remover the shaft and had a machine shop cut a new key-way 180deg from the original. Never could find out what had placed such a tremendous force on the shaft. The difference in timing came on slowly over a few weeks,not all at once. After pulling the rad the job was fairly easy.

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1984 300SD turbo 126
"My true love"

God made me an atheist and who am I to question His wisdom

I measured the injection pump timing and it is off by the same 20 degrees. Since the timing chain and guide rails show no signs of malfunction and it didn't self destruct while I was driving I am going to guess that the goober that replaced the water pump did not install the pointer correctly. So I'm going to button it all back up and run lift pump pressure and compression tests to see what I can see.

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'82 300D - Light Ivory, 2nd Owner (Back in the wind April 2013!)

'95 E300D - White, grey interior. (Suffering from stuck/broken glow plugs)

Deuteronomy 22:4-
"Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again."