My damn TDC marks won't line up. i get them meticulously aligned put the T belt on tension it, tighten the tensioner and turn it over once, when i get the cam gear marks lined up again the crankpulley mark is about a quarter inch to the left of the mark on the timing belt cover. every time i get the belt on and tension it i start to turn the crank and i can feel all the slack on the long side get pulled tight. that's what's throwing off the marks, but the tensioner only pulls the slack from the short side. i'm currently running 2.3 advance on both cams, but that should not make the marks misalign should it, i had the same problem at 0,0.

 

hehe, it takes practice.

 

i've put timing belts on before. in fact i've put this belt on this motor before without problems. i had to take off the head and remove the pistons. this is the only time i've encountered this problem. i'm hoping someone else has too, and maybe they have the solution

 

ttt

 

c'mon it's the tech forum somones gotta know.

 

you need to start belt at crank pulley, then pull all slack out of belt and next route to exhaust pulley, then to intake pulley and finally around waterpump and tensioner. then make sure that tensioner has taken all slack out of tensioner side of belt and then tighten tensioner. Then should be able to rotate engine over (counterclockwise only) and check timing again. Main point to remember, there should be no slack in belt between crank pulley and exhaust cam pulley even before tensioner is allowed to take slack out of belt. All slack should be on tensioner side before tensioner is loosened to take up slack.

Installing belt in this order should help to keep everything in time once slack is taken out of belt.

Hope this helps...

 

i agree, all the slack should be on the tensioner side. this however is not the case, and it seems no matter what i do there is still about half a tooths worth of slack between the exhaust side and the crank.

 

it is not unlikely to have marks be off a bit once belt is in place and everything tight. if marks are off just a half tooth, may be OK. just need to roll engine over by hand roughly 5-7 times and re check marks again. Also, have you had this cylinder head milled, or engine block decked?

Just curious...