ok so I finally got around to putting on my timing belt. after a long day at work i decided to have some "me time" and go work in my shop.

anyways, so i set the crank at TDC and aligned the crank sprocket line to the oil pump arrow. now for the cams, i set the intake (CTR cam) to TDC and slid a staight punch into the hole to hold the cam. Next I set the exhaust (first gen B16 cam) to TDC. I started to drop another straight punch down through the cam caps cover and into the cam. as i'm doing this i'm rotating the cam untill it falls into the hole in the cam. so i'm doing this and not really paying attention to how far i have turned the cam. well it starts to get a little tension and the punch drops in.

this is where i have realized how far advanced i have turned the exhaust cam with the pistons at TDC. I would say at this point 3-4 teeth advanced.

I have ferrea ss valves and low compression cp pistons (around 9.1:1) this may have given more room for the valve to not hit the piston, but i doubt much

oh the cam never rolled or snapped into pisiton at all when i rolled it as it was done very slowly.

so with this all being said. could i have pushed the valves on cyl. #1 into the piston? if so, with what i did, is there going to be damage. all in all i only turned them slowly into the piston and never put alot of force in turning them.

any thoughts?

 

i think, and dont quote me, but i think that usdm cam squirters and jdm cam timing holes dont line up. you know how some cam squirters are machined looking, and some are cast? it seems like i had that issue one time, a long time ago, which is why its hazy but im almost positive, the holes are in different places. so if you have a mismatch of cams and squirters that didnt come together, it might be an issue.

 

your 100% right and I guess I proved that tonight in doing what I did

my thing now is in doing so, did I f*ck up the valve in cyl #1?

 

I doubt you hurt anything turning the cam by hand even if there was contact. Especially since you said you didn't put a lot of force on it.

I had a problem on mine after a swap where the intake cam was not completely seized, but wasn't turning much at all. The timing belt was just raking over the cam gear and the cam would turn/stop/turn/stop. It took us a minute to figure out the problem, so we cranked if for a few bursts each a few seconds long to try to pin point the odd noise. Long story short, we had valve/piston contact with the starter forcing the movement and ended up with no damage to the valves. Maybe I got lucky, but I really doubt you damaged the valves turning the cam by hand. Good luck!

 

if anyone else has some insight feel free to post.

i'm more mad at myself then anything for letting that happen. i'm usually so paranoid that this kinda stuff never happens. ohwell