i noticed my timing belt was a bit loose on the front side(from the exhaust cam to the crank) and i moved the crank pulley a lil bit to compensate for all that slack. and then i thought F.U.C.K., i just effed up the timing. so whats my best be on reversing what i did(when i moved the crank)? ughhhh

my setup:
b20b
b16 head
skunk2 im and TB
dc cam gears both set at 0
garret 57 trim
440s
tuned(with what software i dont know the guy i got it from didnt say)
3in TBE

 

did the belt jump a tooth?

if it didn't it should be ok. just adjust the tensioner

 

Re-do it for peace of mind.

 

did you take anything apart? if not then you didnt harm anything.
what you will want to do is turn the crank just a little to apply tension on the belt like you did earlier and loosen the 14mm nut the locks the tensioner down. when you loosen that the spring will take the slack out and then you just tighten the nut back up and job done.

 

I dont think it jumped a tooth. But it has cam gears and both of them are at 0, and when i put the crank at tdc, the intake cam was a tooth counter clockwise to the exhast cam. The car has never idled bumpy and has ran strong for over a year. So i know for sure its tuned, i just dont know what it was tuned with. My ecu has two step as well. How do i find out what kind of program its runnin on(chrome,neptune, or whatever)? And im not sure if thats how they tuned the car(with the intake cam one tooth counter clockwise) but the car has been beaten to 8k for over a year and the sleeves arent cracked or anything(i pulled the head off the other night).

 

WTF how did u pull the heAd off the other night but don't know how to set ur timing belt???

 

if u read the whole thread you would see that the motor is turboed and has been tuned. the cams are off set to what the tuner wanted. i set the timing belt back exactly how it was wen i pulled off the head(marked the belt and cams with a white painters pen). i know how to set the timing on stock cars, but as u can see my cars not stock, so i didnt want to screw with the timing.but after the new head gasket, the idle is bumpy and it wasnt before, and it sounds like its mising

 

Then set the timing and get it tuned obviously u got the info to solve this urself u have no idea what ur car is tuned on. Something u should know with a boosted car and u should know how ur cams are set. This is a problem that is an easy fix

 

the closest tuner to me is 100 miles away. will they be able to find out what kind of software i currently have? i know i should just get it tuned. but it already is tuned... on a boosted setup are the cams normally one tooth off? or are they set normally and fine tuned with the dizzy? Ya i wish i could get in contact with the guy i got the car from so i could ask him whats up.... but his number is off now...

 

The cams are always set at stock at first. Then after that they are moved to the desired degree. You ALWAYS need a starting point. If you did your headgasket I'm sure you can easily figure out how to set ur timing again. It's lumpy becuase your off a tooth. If your cam gears are locked at 0 then your tuner never did a single thing with the gears when it was tuned.

 

use a timing light to set the timing on the distributer back to 16* if you turned the cam gear to 0 you also moved the distributer

 

Do yourself a favor and start over. Both gears locked at 0, everything at TDC, put the belt on, tension the belt. Then just leave it there and go.

 

^ Absolutely and don't listen to any other advice.

Too much guessing happening here and it's just gonna lead to more problem. You need to zero everything out, align the crank pulley at TDC, fit the belt and tighten the tensioner.

Its common for there to be some "slappage" on the front of the belt even when tensioned properly, which is why companies like vibrant and endyn came out with front side tensioners.

http://www.theoldone.com/components/..._tensioner.htm

 

this is exactly what i was thinking about doing, it was just wierd to see that when i had the crank at tdc, the cams were both off. so i was like hmm maybe that how they tuned the car. i will be setting everything to 0 and see how it goes. after being at 0 do i just retard the dizzy to adjust for boost?

 

Just put it all stock then like the other poster said get a timing light 40 bucks at sears and adj the dizzy till it idles right if its "lumpy" like u said..
And if ur cam gears are already set at zero then ur tuner didnt move them. Just adj it with the dizzy

 

Just set everything to 0 and get the mechanical timing down. Then get a timing light and adjust the dizzy until you are at 16*. You'll be back in business after that.

If... IF... you decide to get the car tuned again and the tuner adjusts the cam gears, you will need to write down the settings or remember them. Then, if the head ever comes off again, you set everything to 0, get the timing together, and then readjust the cam gears to reflect what you once had.

 

well i dont want to have to get it retuned. i dont have the money and trailer to tow my car 100 miles and plus the money for a tune, if i set everything at 0 and set the timing at 16*(i already have a timing light) will i be safe to get into boost? i dont have a wideband yet(waiting on my tax return), so i dont know if ill be going lean or not. but the car has ben beaten on for the past 2 years and i have never heard any detonation or knocking, and the plugs always look good.

 

well if you set everything back to tdc and start over than i would have it tuned again. your tune is set for specific timing degree and if you dont know specs from the last tune it will be off. maybe not enough to harm anything but i wouldnt risk it. wait for the wideband if you dont want to retune at least then youll know where your at.

 

There is some very bad information in this thread.

First off, you don't use the distributor to "adjust for boost." Moving the distributor only adjusts the base timing. The ECU will then alter the ignition timing from that baseline and several other parameters, none of which you have any control over at this point. When a car is tuned, the ignition and fuel maps are defined by your tuner, and written directly to the ECU via tunning software.

If your car has adjustable cam gears, there is no reason that a competent tuner would have adjusted your cam timing by installing the belt incorrectly. They would simply adjust the camgears to tune valve overlap, if need be. On basic builds, cam timing is usually left at 0. If they were set at zero, leave them at zero.

If you removed the head for any reason, I'm betting that you didn't install/tension the timing belt properly. Get everything set back to TDC, set the cam gears to ZERO, and loosen the timing belt tensioner. Re-tighten the tensioner. Rotate the crankshaft (counter clock-wise) until the timing belt moves exactly 3 teeth. Then loosen and re-tighten the tensioner to the proper torque spec. Then, rotate the crankshaft 4-6 times and stop at TDC. Verify that the cam gears and crankshaft pulley are lined up properly.

If you haven't removed the distributor, or adjusted the cam gears, your ignition timing should be fine. If you did, set the ignition timing now.

Good luck...

 

ya i havent messed with anything. just from how good the car has been running i didnt want to adjust anything. i removed the head because i was getting white?foamy oil in the oil cap. so i though hmmm headgasket is gone. so i pulled off the head, but i marked everything so when the head was to be put back on, it would be just how it was. but after the new head gasket,the odle was bumpy and it sounded like it was misfiring. so i checked the plugs, they looked good, then i cleaned the iacv and it was still bumpy. i havent adjusted the dizzy,nor the cam gears. i am going to get everything at tdc and just get it tuned, i would rather pay the money and know my tune and know its not leaning out and all. thanks for all the input and advise guys. like i said before, im not very familiar with boost, so i wasnt trying to just go" hey i can advance the dizzy and get a few extra horses outta her". i actually have an aem ems ecu but its for obd2a and the motor is in a 95 teg, i might swap the motor and get it tuned on the aem.

 

Listen to this guy. I have never heard of someone tuning valve timing by effectively skipping teeth on cam gear. Do people really do this?

 

i really want to know as well

 

No, they do not. There is absolutely no reason to try and adjust valve timing by advancing or retarding the cam gear(s) an entire tooth.

Usually, tuners don't mess with the cam gears until they've exhausted every other option for power. Even then, the gains are marginal at best. Especially on a turbo car with OEM cams.

When you removed/reinstalled the head, did you follow the proper procedure for installing your timing belt?

 

yup, i did it how i always have done it.aligned the marks. rotated the crank a bit, redid the tensioner, and checked to make sure everything was good.

 

If ur scared of running lean just check ur plugs