i just got my h22a milled and rebuild, my mechanic and i believe .039 was taken off, i have aem tue time cam gears, exhaust is all the way, it runs but no pull at vtec. here are a few pics just to give you an idea of what i got going, thanks in advance.

 

What exactly do you mean by this?

First, did you set the cam timing to stock before making any adjustments? I'd imagine you'd need to alter the cam timing by a degree or so to compensate for the milling. My head is milled about the same amount, and IIRC, I had to change my cam timing by 1 to 1.5 degrees. It's been a few years, and I can't find my build sheet.

 

yes we set it to stock, but the car had a shitty cold start, when i rev it hesitates, then when it gets warm it would be ok, but when driven and vtec kicks in you hear it but theres no power at all, no top end whats so ever.

its advance all the way on the exhaust side on the cam gears, i hope sounds right, once we did that it ran but no pull on vtec.

 

How did you verify that you set the cam timing to OEM spec?

Also, what did you do to ensure that you could advance the exhaust cam gear without clearance issues? What kind of valves, pistons, cams, etc are you using?

 

my mechanic lined up the time on the crank but couldn't line up in the cam gears, it was a tooth out from what i understood.

i know everything in the block is stock, the head was rebuild with oem parts not performance parts. the cam gears are aem tru time, the camshafts look look like there aftermarket but im not so sure, i compared the camshafts to what i know is stock camshafts and the ones on the motor have like a shinny blue color to them. im doing my best to explain the issue hope it makes sense.....

 

Sounds like cam timing is way off. You should only be a degree or two off from stock with the AEM cam gears set to 0. What needs to be done is to remove the timing belt, set the cam gears to 0, then reinstall the timing belt like OEM. Set the #1 piston to TDC on the compression stroke, and you should see that the cams will be retarded by a degree or two.

Of if you want, set the cams to +1 or +2 advanced on both cam gears, then install the timing belt as usual. Then see if the cams are timed correctly.

Being off a tooth is enough to really make the car run like crap. I'm surprised you aren't getting a CEL.

 

maybe you should of had gotten a thicker head gasket to compensate for the milling.

 

Uh, that defeats the purpose of the milling!!

 

later today my mechanic and i are going to try a few things , he said hes going to advance the exhaust cam? well he told me he's skeptical because hes afraid he might bent a valve, i might be wrong on this, but he says his going to advance something and hes afraid he might bent a valve

 

tell him to use the allignment dowls for the cams so that way they are locked in at the correct timing and set the motor to top dead center then put the belt on and this should solve your problem .039 is not that much and shouldnt make a difference.

 

How could he not line it up ? You just line them up, theres not much to it, then you compensate for the milling.

 

Your "mechanic" sounds suspect. Some service guys are not much in the way of doing aftermarket work. You may want to find some one with more expirence in this line of repairs.

 

No way, your average Mechanic/Dealer Service Dept Tech is ready to build anything!!!! At least they think they are.

 

Theoretically, with a milled head, you would need to advance both cams the same amount to get to the OEM timing mark again.

To adjust the exact amount of advance to compensate for the milling, you would need to degree the cams........