Ok so heres what im dealing with, my exhaust cam turns all fine and dandy and normal, however my exhaust cam is being a pain to turn, its pretty tight. Everything it torqed properly and i none of the valves are stuck. I was looking in the head with the valve cover off and noticed arrows on the bridges that hold the cams down, now i dont know which way those are supposed to point.. toward the 1 or 4 cylinder... Other than this i am completely out of ideas here.. help me please.

 

what series head are you talking about?

 

I guess that would help whoops.. Its a 96 GSR US version.

 

the arrows on the cam caps are suppose to be facing the timing belt side of the engine

 

ok thats how i have it. Is it a possibility that one of them is hanging up cause the motor hasnt been run in a few years. I mean the inside of the head is pretty mint. no real hard wear or sludge or anything like that.

 

did you use engine assembly lube when you put it back together?

 

i didnt have the lube so i put engine oil on all of the bridges.

 

like he said, other than not using lube idk why it wouldnt turn easily. im assuming your talking about it not turning easily by hand?

 

take it apart and reinstall using assembly lube. that will be a good time to check the mating surfaces of the cam and bridges for scoring etc..

 

It feels like its hanging up on the valves in the number 3 cylinder. The exhaust cam clicks every rotation through the valves whereas the exhaust one is difficult to turn and hangs up at number 3. All of this is by socket wrench not by hand

 

no scoring, i jut had it apart.

 

hmm...

everything is torqued to spec? head bolts/studs, and cam caps, in the right sequence? ( i can prob dig up a diagram if you dont have one)

i would take apart again, use a lot of engine assembly lube on all surfaces, torque everything down to spec in the right sequence, and see what happens...

did you adjust your valves? that could very well be the problem, too. id be sketchy about just using engine oil, but you may be able to get away with it if you pour oil on everything before adjusting your valves, and turning over your motor by hand before your first start up to circulate oil first.

 

honestly that was the last thing that i could think of was that maybe the valves need to be adjusted because i've tried everything else. And i also have a manual with all of the torque specs on it so i know there right, and in the right sequence. I've never adjusted valves though so i dont even know where to begin.

 

nevermind, the valves were adjusted and they are correct. I am completely out of ideas.

 

?? hm, you did the thing with the feeler gauges and what not? what sizes did you use?
.006 intake and .007 exhaust is generally what i use.

i would seriously pick up some of that lube tomorrow, take the caps back off, take the cams out, lube everything up, put it back together torqued to spec, adjust your valves, and see what happens. if that doesn't fix it, i would be truly floored. there's only so many things it can be.

it will be a much bigger problem if you just run the car as is, i promise you. i know it sucks, but take the time to take it apart again and fix it. you dont want the cam to seize in the head, and then youll have to buy a new head and new cams. ask me how i know lol

are they stock cams?

 

I did not adjust them personally, my neighbor is a mechanic and he came over and took a look at it and said they were pretty much good to go, and i trust him because he really knows his ****.

And i will pick up the stuff tomorrow on my lunch break and do exactly that, the only thing is i feel like its not going to change anything. Either way, thank you for spending some time to post and help me out! If it works out ill be sure to update tomorrow.

Also yes, they are the stock cams, everything in the head is 100% stock.

 

no offense, but if he didn't crack out some feeler gauges and insert them in between the cam lobes and the rockers, and check the clearances on everything, there's no way to know if it's all good. it's not something that you can see, as the tolerances are so small.

if this wasn't done, id pick up a set of angled feeler gauges while you're at it. sears sells em. just make sure the gauges go down to .006 (can't remember if that's in. or mm, but you'll know pretty quickly if you check some out)

the valve adjustment is one of the big things that makes your idle silky smooth, btw. more power, gas mileage, too. it's noticeable.

if you need help w/ the rest of it, ill check in tomorrow...

-jon

 

u sure the physical timing is correct?

 

the motor is not in the car, and there is no timing belt on at the moment.

 

Good news, traced it back to my distributer, now heres the thing... I took it off and the cam now clicks into position perfectly, but the strange thing is that the distributer is still able to be turned very easily by hand so i cant figure out why its binding up like this. Would it make a difference if its an obd1 dizzy on an obd2 motor... would that cause it to not work correctly for some reason?

 

nope, should work

 

Throw a timing belt on, Align everything to TDC from crank and cams, Pull the cap on the distributor, align the rotor to cylinder 1, install the cap. Do not touch or turn the insert on the distributor, and install on head. If that don't work....let me know.

 

i was thinking valve hitting piston.

 

yea your valves could very well be hitting a piston if your turning the cams without turning the crank (ie no timing belt). just for future reference, its not good to turn cams without a belt on, because you can smash the valves into the piston, especially when going with bigger cams, higher compression pistons etc. hopefully nothing is bent. take em back out, lube everything up properly, torque em back down, line everything up and put a belt on, then do a valve adjustment.

btw, OEM Honda timing belt and tensioner is the way to go if you can swing for it. people run them in crazy horsepower setups w/ no probs.

 

Didn't he say that the distributor was culprit??