Hello everyone, I think I messed up royally. I am in the middle of a b series swap for my CRX. I have taken it upon myself to go at it alone and have read every build thread I could find.

Anyway, I have the B20 out of the car at the moment and was doing the Water pump, timing belt and tensioner. I set the crank at tdc, took the old belt off and went to put the new belt on. One cam moved about a tooth, then the other did the same thing.

So I go to YouTube to see if there are any videos on what I should do next. One video says to turn the cams counter clockwise until they are aligned again and put the belt back on. I did exactly that, with the crank at TDC.

That was yesterday. Today I asked a buddy about what I had done and he immediately got a concerned look on his face. He says I probably bent valves and recommended I do a leak down test before I install the engine. I am at work right now, but will be doing the test once I get home. The thing is another friend said that I should be fine and to test just in case. Basically, the wait is killing me. I have a few hours left and would appreciate having one of you knowledable gentlemen give me some insight into the most probable probability. I thank you beforehand and always appreciate your time.



The Rs

 

Unless you take an impact to your cams, I doubt you bent valves if you haven't ran the motor.

This is simple. Set the crank to TDC, then align the cams to TDC, install the belt, tighten the tensioner bolt, rotate the crank counter-clockwise till the cams are back at TDC; make sure the crank is also back to exactly TDC (or visa-versa). If you're still good, then you're good! If you're off, take belt off, re align them all, and repeat.

If you rotate the crank by hand, and you hit valves, you're likely not going to bend them, the motor will just not turn. That being said, like pretty much anything in life, you can over-do it if you put too much muscle behind it. You shouldn't have to though, or your bearings are no good (or you left the trans in gear, lol).

 

Thank you very much for your time, means a lot to me when a fellow human being is willing to take time out of their day to help me. I turned both cams using my ratchet and did it slowly. I lined everything up and did as you said, turning the crank about four times after installing the belt. Everything lines up and everything is on the mark, crank and both cams. I am about 3 hours away from finding out how the leak down test goes and will update this thread with the results. Thanks again.



The Rs

 

Well, I got home late and didn't want to wake anyone with the compressor. Just finished the test and I don't know what is going on. I had my wife buy me a leakdown tester from Harbor Freight and the thing is giving me inconsistent reads. I am going to go and buy another leakdown tester to see if I can get some straight answers.



The Rs

 

What do you mean"inconsistent reads"? 94

 

First it showed about 15% to 20% on all cylinders. I went ahead and tested it three more times to get an average and it started showing me 40% leakage after that.



The Rs

 

Try to start it! lol

 

Ordered a quality (I hope) tester, should be here Friday. Not moving a tooth until then.



The Rs

 

The quick and dirty low down way to verify your valves is simply to pump air into the cylinder when it's TDC. Starting with #1 set TDC. If air does not escape into the intake or the exhaust, that set of valves is sealing.

Rotate crank 90 degrees counter clock wise and repeat the process on #3, then rotate the crank another 90 degrees and repeat on #4 and then another 90 degrees and lastly repeat on #2.

If air doesn't escape into the intake or the exhaust on any cylinder, the valves are fine.

That, my friend is called, the poor man's leak down.

 

One thing I did do was check both Manifolds while testing each cylinder. I heard and felt nothing out of either one. Guess I'll take that as a temporary victory for now. Thank you for your time, really appreciate it.



The Rs

 

Whenever doing the timing belt it's normal for the cam to want to move a tooth or two when trying to set the timing belt, especially if you have an engine with high compression. You just move it back. It's actually easier on some motors to simply move the cam and crank one tooth and then slightly move the crank about a tooth as well. Then set the timing belt. Then when you move it back it will be lined up. I bought a "timing belt slider" for use on my h22a with manual tensioner because the belt is so tight when it's new and since it's a hybrid tensioner kit it doesn't really allow for a lot of slack. I have to set the timing belt and tighten the tensioner bolt. Then just crank it so the belt stretches, then do the actual proper tension.

Never try to turn the cam through just because it moved one tooth or even a few. Just move it back. You only worry about it jumping a tooth when you are spinning it backwards with an impact or something, which is basically never.

 

Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it.



The Rs

 

Gentlemen, thank you for all of your help. This site has always been a great resource for me and I am truly grateful to you all.

Before I give the results, I have few questions:

Is it normal for the leakdown test to sometimes cause the engine to turn clockwise? I had this happen to me about 4 times through all of the tests I did.



And...did I do the test properly? I set it to TDC for the particular cylinder, connected the leakdown tester and then turned the pressure to 10 psi. If the loss of air was significant, I turned the crankshaft until the hissing ceased, basically finding the sweet spot. I then turned the tester up to 40 psi and took down the readings. Thing is, cylinders 2 and 3's "sweet spot" TDC position was off by about half to a full tooth off of what TDC marks are on the cams. Is this typical?


Anyhow, using the testing methods outlined above, I obtained the following readings after mutiple tests. The following are averages.

Cylinder 1: 5%
Cylinder 2: 10%
Cylinder 3: 10%
Cylinder 4: 8%

Again, thank you for all of your help.



The Rs

 

The results are looking good from what I understand. On a cold engine 5-10% is perfectly acceptable to get past the rings.

And yes, anytime you pump are into the cylinder and the crank or cam isn't locked into place, it will move the piston back down either clockwise or counter clockwise depending on which side of the rod is just past or before TDC.