2000 B18B1. Just got the car, doing a full service.

For the life of me I couldn't get the crank gear lined exactly at TDC , using crank gear and oil pump mark. Got Real close it seemed. By now I had noticed the mention of holding the cams at tdc via using a pin in the Helms. Nice.

So I got it all together. Also did a valve adjustment. Intake sides were fine.
Exhaust valves seemed tight to me. Set them all at .007.

New plugs, wires, cap and rotor. It fired right up. More valve noise than I remember.
Tried adjusting timing (I didn't follow the exact timing procedure - just wanted to confirm my suspicion that I was off a bit on the timing belt) Retarded the timing (CW) all the way. No real change.

Let it run a good bit, no change in valve noise....just a higher than normal idle. I waited until it idled down a bit after running a few minutes. Warm idle is still high.

I'm thinking I'm advanced a tooth or two on the crank / timing belt.

Was wondering about just yanking the valve cover, side engine mount, loosening the t-belt tensioner bolt, removing the upper timing cover.

At that point I set the crank (pulley still on it) to the TDC mark on pulley and lower timing cover. - which regardless of what color it's supposed to be, it's the mark all by itself - correct? NOT the middle of the three marks close together?

I would assume ff I can't drop pins in the holes of the cams, that means they aren't at TDC.
I should be able to look down at the cam / holes and tell which way each cam gear needs to go.

Anyone had success by removing the t-belt (tensioner loose) from one cam pulley at a time and turning the cam gear a tooth or so (what ever needed to line up the TDC hole in the cam) I'm thinking a pair of channel locks with a towel over the spoke of the gear would work. Pretty sure I saw that in a post here somewhere.

If the crank mark does NOT move during this, I should be at TDC across the board.

I also think I set the exhaust valves a bit on the loose side as well.

Any feedback?

 

The valve lash specs for a non-vtec engine are much tighter than those of a vtec engine. I don't remember off the top of my head but I think they are in the neighborhood of 0.003" intake and 0.004" exhaust, but don't quote me on that. The excess valve noise is because you loosened them up too much. Check your service/helms/mitchell/haynes manual for the exact specs.

 

I did use the Helms specs for the valve lash.
B18B1 Info
Page 6-4
Exhaust -.006-.008"
Intake - .003-.005"


While I agree that I may have loosened the exhaust valve lash up a bit too much, causing some extra valve noise - that is not explaining me being able to retard the timing (moving dist cap CW) all the way and it not really effect anything. Granted this is with the ECM not looped / shorted but it still shouldn't be able to do this.

I'm definitely going to redo the valve lash, but I'm going to verify that with my crank pulley at the TDC mark, the cams are also lined up to TDC (able to drop pins into the holes). If the are NOT, I'm off a tooth (or other amount) at the cam gear (s).

 

on LS cams there is a spot on it that you can actually put a wrench to turn it.

ignore the pin holes, just look at the marks on the cam gears.

i don't like using the lower cover to see if the motor is at TDC, as the motors are old now and the plastic covers can warp.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll find out tonight if the cam timing is right regardless.
If it is off, it's advanced, since it idled a good bit higher after the t-belt install.
I'll break out my timing light to see where the ignition timing is as well.

 

Check the cam timing first. As others have said, just look for the timing marks on the cam gears. Set those, and then see if you're pointing at the right spot on the crank pulley.

 

Cam timing is dead on.

If you zoom on the image you can see the TDC crank mark. It's pinkish, not white. LOL



When the crank is there the cams are here:



Tightened the exhaust valves, ran a Felpro VC gasket with no sealant, and zero leaks so far.

Car is running good. Still had a bit of a tap or clack. I'm probably not just used to Honda's.

Everyone else I know says it sounds fine.

 

holy big pics

 

Drove the car to work this morning. Ran great.

Felpro Permadry valve cover gasket still bone dry. I did fit it to the valve cover and seat it all the way around, then I laid a service manual on top of it so it would conform to the valve cover. Let this sit while I adjusted the valve cover. It went right on, clean surface on head and valve cover, no sealant whatsoever, torqued the bolts to spec in 3 steps. So far zero leaks at the valve cover.

The box for the gasket states "no chemicals to install".

This car is 13 years old, but the engine type is older than that. Gasket technology has come a long way in that time. I remember stacking cork valve cover gaskets for the small block chevy, then the newer style rubber gasket came out and worked without any sealant (if you didn't gorilla tighten the bolts). I'm thinking a lot of folks simply don't realize how much force a normal 3/8 ratchet can impart on a bolt without bearing down on it. I tested this several years ago and 30 ft/lbs is easy for me with a 3/8 ratchet, so I made sure not to bear down on the valve cover bolts.

Seems to be working for now.

 

This is cranking it up after timing belt / service and after setting exhaust valve lash to exactly .007 (.008 would not fit)


And after it warmed up