I am in the middle of Replacing the VTC actuator (of course!) and while my assistant was keeping tension on the timing chain while I was removing the cams... the chain jumped a few teeth from the bottom sprocket. To picture the visual... you have him pulling up the chain using two hands but he applied more pressure on one side and less pressure on the other side... so the chain skipped a few teeth (it happened very quickly) and grew on the cam side and dropped on the exhaust side. Hoping this is making sense -- it's difficult to illustrate using just words. Thankfully, the timing chain design on this engine is very simple and there is really no room for the chain to go other than just jumping teeth on the crank sprocket (without turning the crank of course). The other good news is... I marked my timing chain with a paint pen so each chain link over cam dimples got some paint to tell me exactly where the chain needs to go back on after I reinstall the exhaust gear and VTC actuator and gear. However... not wanting to take any chances, I wanted to confirm I am not running any risks by reversing the chain skips by pulling the chain back through in reverse (without moving the crank gear of course) until may respective pain marks line up with their respective cam gear marks. Hopefully someone has been through this before and can advise. The last thing I want to have to do is remove the timing chain cover just to inspect everything. That would add considerable time to this job which I do not have right now. Thanks in advance for your input. P.S. -- I have the timing chain tensioner properly pinned/locked and everything at TDC with the crank and cam gears properly aligned. Thanks!

 

I wouldn't fight with moving the chain. If the crank and cams line up on their TDC marks just keep going. The chain only lines up on the same teeth every hundred revolutions or something and the relationship between the the chain and the gears is irrelevant.