I was putting a cam gear on my buddy's motor and we found out that the spring on the tensioner was inop, so when I was turning the crank, I skipped a few teeth on the cam gear, so the cam and crank are not timmed together. I know how to time the head, but do I put the cam at TDC when the crank is at 0* or the 17* that it is supposed to run at? TIA.

 

You know how there is the timing "sights" on the plastic timing belt cover? Well on the crank pulley there are 4 lines total. 3 of them are near each other, and are for ignition timing. There is a single line apart from the other 3 which is for the mechanical timing. Line up the single lone line on the crank pulley in the timing sights, then put the cam gear on at TDC and you're good to go. Remember that the 4th gen si motors (d16a6) cam timing is a little different than the other models. The d16a6 stock cam gears have an extra line to match up that's somewhat diagonal.