Alright its been a while since I gave a crap about my motor and now I thought I knew how to accomplish this aparently easy task of seting your motor up to installa timing belt but I just cant do it. Ive made 2 other threads before and got lots of info but I dunno what Im doing wrong so whoever wants to take the time to listen to my problems, diagnosis and request pics or look at my own Id appreciate it alot as this is the last thing other than clutch install I have to do before I drop in my motor.

The motor is a D16a6 head and block

Where I stood last time I posted


Where I am now, no real difference, just picked up a timing cover and got more pissed off that I couldnt do this myself after assembling it no problem


The problem:
I set both crank and head to TDC. I set the crank by putting a screwdriver in the piston hole closest to the crankpulley and turning the crank until the screwdriver is at its highest point. I set the head by going by the 2 marking on my AEM Tru Time can gear that are on the sides, there are two marking on the gear that I allign parallel with the valve cover surface.

The timing belt is already around the bottom of the crank, around the tensioner and around the oil pump, so I press down form the exhaust side on the tensioner and pull as much slack as I can towards the pump and place the belt over the cam gear, lots of slack from the cam gear to the crank. I then undo the tensioner so it grabs the slack to the oil pump but theres still tons on the gear to the crank.

I tried this system many times, sometimes it looks like the belt is jumping on the bottom of the crank, one time I got it to grab but because there was so much slack from the cam gear to the crank, it totally threw off the positioning and I jsut spun it a bit and it was ******* tight and hard as **** to crank ( Im spinning counter clockwise BTW )

Im sorry this is my first motor Ive ever built but Im really lost to this and i really should have spent more time on it instead of neglecting this car but now I want it done. Hopefully Im just doing something stupid wrong, but if need be I will take off the head and start over to make sure I didnt **** anything up or spin the wrong way or whatever.

Ask for any pictures, anthing Ive done. I want this motor to run when I start it up, not grind and seize up. I really need someone to bare with me and help

Thanks

 

are u sure u have the corret belt?

 

if you have that much slack then you have the wrong timing belt. wouldnt be the first time a parts place gave someone the wrong schitt.

put the belt on the crank 1st and then wind it around the tensioner and the waterpump. then squeese it onto the cam. It should be a fairly close fit even with the tensioner loosed up. also you dont need to push on the tensioner to remove the slack theres a proper method.

 

Yeah. the timing belts have a different number of teeth from engine to engine.

 

This timing belt was pulled off of the motor I just blew, replaced 6k ago, both D16a6 motors

 

bump for working a double shift

 

Well, you can try to install the belt this way...

1. lower pulley
2. cam gear
3. waterpump
4. tensioner

But make sure that the tensioner bolt is loosened enough so the tensioner can move in every direction... after you get the belt over the tensioner, start tightening the bolt and make sure everything is in place... that would be it...

there is 99% chance that you can install it that way without any problem

The other "good side" is that you CAN'T F#CK UP your timing that way... but if you install it over the tensioner and the pump first, there is a very good chance your timing won't be like it should...

 

From the looks of this you do not have the timing belt going over the tenshioner. You need to go down the top gear around the water pump underneath the water pump and over the tenshioner then start down to the bottom.

 

Yeah it was just thrown on there, I am running it the correct way for sure

 

why not get a picture of it with the belt in the right position so we can see how much slack you actually have

 

did the spring fall off the tensioner? mine did that as i was replacing the timing belt, and after lots of cussing and spinning the crank, i realized what was going on.

 

My spring is still there, something is definetely wrong though, the block spins like butter on its own but when I get the belt on and try and spin it counter clockwise its just so ******* hard, I spun it until the #1 piston went to about the BDC and then just went back, should I take the head off? I dunno, I need someone to let me know

Also when spinning it counter clockwise, kinda hear a clicking/friction from the oil pump area, right above the tensioner

 

thats because when the timing belt is on your also turning the cam against the valves so youre having to fight the valve springs and whatnot. you can make it a bit easier to turn by taking out the spark plugs if they arent already out. as for the sound it doesnt sound concerning.

 

The manual makes it sound like its supposed to be easy breezy to turn over by hand

I just ripped the head off anyways, Ill take a pic for someone to tell me for sure

I also am looking for a definitive answer as to if my block has to be at a certain stroke or if I can just set the #1 piston (closest to crank pulley right) to TDC, same with the head and then the belt.

Im gonna stick the head in a vice right now and try and turn it over

THen hopefully stick it backon before I head back to work for the night

Hope for some good help
THanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by W O T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I also am looking for a definitive answer as to if my block has to be at a certain stroke or if I can just set the #1 piston (closest to crank pulley right) to TDC, same with the head and then the belt.
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The stroke doesn't matter. As long as you line up the crank to #1 TDC and the cam gear to the same, then put the timing belt on, you will be fine.

The distributor only fits into the cam one way so it will determine which cylinder is firing when anyways.

This is a really weird problem you are having. It's one of those things that seems so simple so it is really frustrating when it's not working.

I'm interested in hearing what the problem is.

 

tdc is tdc on the crank and the cam. its only when the belt is on that it takes 4 crank rotations to turn the cam once.

 

Head was removed and I spun it bunch of times on the bench was pretty easy to spin there, no binding or anything. Just threw it back on and torqued it down to 65ftlbs with my ARP studs

Back to where I started from haha

 

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO I ******* did the easiest job and it only took me TOOO LONG!!

I dunno why I never thought of this, but like I was saying there was to much slack and it would jump a tooth or whatever when I spun the crank and it would jump a tooth at the oil pump, so I did everything the exact same as Ive been doing (I knew I was doing it right) and then instead of just tightenening down the tensioner I gave it a good smack with a rubber mallet to increase tension. IT MOVED LIKE 1/3"!!! ******* took out all the slack (might actually be to tight) and I spun the motor over 4 crank revolutions, no binding, fairly easy to turn over, belt does sound like its stretching though, might loosen it a bit.

Such an easy ******* solution, I figured that spring would pull it as tight as possible, thanks for whoever said check the spring, you put the thought it my head

Who knows how tight this belt is supposed to be now?

 

So what was the problem then? Was the tensioner binding or something?

 

When I was pushing the tensioner down to get the belt over the oil pump, when I would let go of it, it wouldnt pull the belt super tight, it definetely came back up but only about 1/4", pulling the belt very little, so when I spun it, it would skip right there between the tensioner and the oil pump, I tapped the tensioner up a good bit, tightenned it hard and voila,

Now I just gotta jam something in the other side to torque down the pulley I guess

 

Just make sure you do tension it properly. You'd probably not want to have the belt skip or break because it was too tight or loose.

This is what's suggested for the d16z6: Put belt on after aligning crank pulley marks and cam marks (stock cam has a big line on it - basicly make sure both are ~1* of TDC). Wrap belt on - crank, cam, water pump, tensioner; make sure all slack is by tensioner (slack between cam/crank will throw timing off after you tension it). With plugs in, turn crank slowly 3 revolutions counter-clockwise (puts all the slack over tensioner). Assuming your tensioner moves freely (in your case I don't think it is/was), tighten it down to where it's <U>moved itself to</U>.

I'm not sure if new belts should be retensioned after a few miles, but I reused a belt (as you are) on my z6 and have 1k miles w/incident, redlining almost daily.

 

the belt should never be super tight. now that you have it on there loosen the tensioner bolt a half turn, turn the crank counter clockwise 3 teeth on the cam gear. hold tension and tighten the tensioner bolt again. thats it.

 

Alright well Im glad I came back

I do see a single mark on the cam gear @ the 7 o lock position. does this have to be lined up with the valve cover? Im assuming I would line it up with the marking on the exhaust side of the valve cover right???

I hope you can explain it to me, I have no problem fixing it if you can explain it.

My timing according to the AEM can gear is also 4 degrees retarded, to fix that do I just loosen the 3 bolts and use the center bolt to turn it back to 0?

Also when I set the 7oclock marking to parallel with the valve cover, #1 piston is still at TDC when I throw the belt on right?

Thanks

 

thats probablt the top dead center mark on the cam gear and should be straight up. yes you should probably set the gear back to 0 to make sure you get it lined up right. after you get the belt on you can readjust the timing. set the cam at tdc and set the crank at tdc then put the timing belt on . they should both remain at tdc even after you have re-tensioned the belt.

 

On the d16z6 I'm building right now there are three marks and "top" stamped into the cam gear.

Here's where they are... (can you tell I'm bored at work!? LoL)



**edit**

Ooops! I just realized you aren't using the stock cam gear.

Hmmm...