While I was doing my valve adjustment 3 months ago (yeah, I forgot to ask but now I remember), I noticed that with the cam gears lined up, the crank 0 degree mark was a little off. It was about 3-4 degrees clockwise from the 0 mark.

Mind you, I'm lining the crank marks with the timing belt lower cover marker. What is the allowable limit for the crank with the cam gears lined up?

 

thats perfectly normal.

 

I guess it depends on how close your estimation of 3-4 degrees is. If you have the crank at TDC (lines up with the lower timing cover notch) and your cam gears are noticably out of sync, that is not perfectly normal.

Line up the cams so both point up and you should see a notch on the side of each cam gear.. right side of the exhaust gear, left side of the intake gear. Line those up perfectly and look at the crank pulley. Notice the marks to the left of the TDC mark (14, 16, 18 degrees BTDC).. that is 2 degrees between each mark, so 4 degrees between the first and third mark.

If the car runs fine, which I'm assuming it does, don't worry about it. Obviously I'm not there to see it but to me it sounds like the belt jumped a tooth.

Justin

 

It is perfectly normal. There is enough slack in most belts to allow the crank pulley to be turned while the cams stay line up. This will give you play in the amount of +/- a few degrees on the crank pulley.

No worries...

-kenji

 

When you are checking the position of the timing belt, the crank pulley will line up at TDC, *not* at the 14-16-18 marks. The TDC mark on the crank pulley is off on its own and is usually white.

 

I probably should have been more clear than I thought I was.

Could you, given a pulley with one mark on it, determine by eye what 3-4 degrees looks like? Probably not, so I said look at the 14,16,18 marks to get an idea of how big (small) 2 degrees actually is.

For all I knew your guess of "3-4 degrees" was half an inch so I was clearing it up.

That is all.

Justin

 

First off, I know how to time the car and everything you said is NOT new to me. I based my guess-timate of 3-4 degrees from those 3 marks you mentioned. I took some pics and just checked them again, it's more like 2 degrees.

 

Well then I guess *I'm* the jackass.

Why bother posting a question to which you know the answer, and after 3 months at that?

 

I didn't know the answer, try reading my question again from the first post. G3-TEG answered my question. Thanks Cresent!