so ive timed a few motors and done mine numerous times.. beginning to think im doing something wrong but no way could i have just gone retarded.
timed the motor to the white mark on the pulley and aligned the gears. took all the tension out of the belt gave it a few rotations and at tdc on the crank the cam gears are staggered.. not a full tooth but looks like at least half, is this normal? ive done it 10 times on this motor and always the same thing. tired of doing it.
also when i start the car the ignition timing is retarded to hit 17*
heres a pic of the cams when pulleys at TDC

 

Love the old school 3 bolt AEMs!!!
Aftermarket cams + aftermarket cam gears means you might have to bust out the degree wheel and dial indicators to truly find TDC...
Or you could throw some oem gears on there, retension, and reinspect the marks...If the OEM gears line up , then you know its probably the aem gears...good luck!

 

thought about that.. but i had them lined up a few times before.. but with a diff timing belt. think maybe i have the wrong one? i was using a toda. they were perfect. now using oem

 

If you can somehow get just a little more tension on the belt, the cam gears will advance a hair and line up perfectly...
If your tensioning the belt with the spark plugs out, reinstall them. The compression will add a little tension too..good luck!

 

dude, move your cams around.. is it that hard?

Get a 14mm socket, and remove the cams to where they match...just because they just dont "fall into place" doesn't mean they dont line up correctly, you do have to move the cams themselves alittle bit to make them line up..

your exhaust lobes should be pointed towards 11 o clock., while your intake lobes should be pointed at the 1 o clock.

Move your intake, a tiny...TINY bit forward, and move your exhaust forward until it lines up, move accordingly when you go to put your timing belt on, cause you might have to move it slightly to get the belt to go on.
From there, you'll need to make sure its tight all around, even in between the gears , you dont want alot of flop.

 

i tried stagering them a little. i set the crank pully closer to the ignition timing marks then the exhaust cam down and intake up. they should line up but dont.. ill just keep trying. basically i just wanted to know if that still qualifies as a tooth off or needs adjustment

 

If the same gears AND the same cams were used before and lined up perfectly, why would it change simply by changing belts? Belt tension...You can adjust your cam gears to "zero" but is this REALLY zero? Or you could just put them to "zero" and guess where your cam timing is...Id degree the cams in if I were you.

 

rock got sucked up in the cut out valve cover and put a hole in the toda so i replaced it.
only reason im worried about how this lines up is because im installing pro2 cams next week after i get my endyn tensioner

 

Is that valve timing retarded? Did you have your head decked? If so, that may explain why the valve timing is retarded, which is the whole purpose of adjustable cam gears - tuning out machining variances.

 

those gears are sitting on pro2's i installed them and locked the vtec lobe used the s2 quick settings, -1e +3in, im sure i did it backwards but was just checking for p2V
head was milled .002 block decked .001 but im using a .040 hg