Im going to be replacing my stock cam and valvetrian components soon. I have heard several different ways of setting an engine to TDC. I was just wondering how many different ways there are of doing this and which way is the easiest. Also is there any "test" i should do just to make sure it is at TDC.

Thnx, my engine is a D16Z6

 

go by the white mark on the crank pully and the mark on the timming cover.

heres some picks of the marks
http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...t.php

 

First of all The number 1 piston has to be on compression stroke, not exhaust stroke, then line up the timing mark on cam with the crank ( on compression stroke you should feel air coming out of where spark plug goes,

 

best way to make sure that its on the compression stroke, take out number one spark plug, stick a long screwdriver where the spark plug goes and make sure when you line the mark up the screwdriver is at its highest point.

 

take off the upper timing belt cover and look at the cam gear.

There is a mark on cam gear that says "UP" make that point up then use the mark at around the 7 O'clock position to line up with the arrow on the back side of the upper cover.

****UP
_******** _

*/

*EDIT*

The stars are for spacing so you can see where the marks are positioned on the cam gear

*/EDIT*

Something like the above. Then also make sure that the white mark on the crank pully is lined up with the view finder on the lower timing belt cover.

 

Screwdriver at the highest point in the #1 spark plug (all the way on the right when looking at the car from the front) hole is a good way. A nice double check is to adjust the crank ever-so slightly to make sure the screwdriver can't go any higher. You can start off the initial alignment just by setting the hash to the hash (there's 2 very obvious hashes, if you want, you can look at it before you take the timing belt off so you know what you're looking for when you go to put the new one back on), then adjust a twait hair to make sure that screw driver's at the highest point possible.

Then the engine's at TDC. From there it's the cams, on double cams sometimes there's 2 arrows pointing at each other (one on each cam), but the more common one is a "up" on the gear...put that part...up. You said you only have one gear though (SOHC) so you don't have to worry about that, just lign up the slashes to that on the engine or put the word that says "up" - UP.

Good luck, aligning it wrong can suck O.o - though once you dive in there it's a lot easier than it sounds.