Doing Timing Belt & Cams... Need Some Help

[haydenm315]

I'm replacing the timing belt and am doing cams at the same time and am confused. I've got the helms and a printout from shotimes and my car is not matching up to either. I noticed 2 marks on the timing belt which just so happen to line up with the index marks above the cam sprockets. I thought this was tdc but when I opened up the helms they show the two little divets in the cam sprockets lining up at the top where the index marks are. This isn't the case in my situation. The picture in shotimes shows the divets up on top matching up. When I match the divet on the front cam up on the index mark the one on the back still isn't lined up. The front cams look to be lined up but the back ones aren't. I also noticed another divet on the crank sprocket which doesn't seem to line up with anything. I'm not an extremely experienced mechanic. Ok so I'm not a real mechanic at all but enjoy learning the skills. I need some pointers on how to figure out wtf is up. My guess is that the timing was altered on the car before I got it but I'm no pro. Either that or the person who did maintenance before me left things out of sort to give me a hard time. Where is TDC and what should I do?

 

[haydenm315]

hmmm... no replies yet so I did some more research so I could get a better reply. I searched the forums and read that there's a timing mark on the lower cover. Shotimes faq never mentioned it and I must have missed it when taking it off. I looked for marks on the crank pulley and saw 3 different nicks. There is one nick that is most distinct and lines up with the key on the crank. I assume this is the one that should line up with the 0 mark ont the cover. When this is done neither cam sprocket lines up with the index marks at noon. Wazzup?

 

[projectSHO89]

Other than during the initial installation of the belt, the marks on the belt are to be ignored.

From what I've seen, there should be 2 marks on the timing dampener,a white and a yellow. Rotate the crank until the white mark is at TDC. The yellow mark should be at about 5 o'clock. Both camshafts should have the index marks at 12 oclock. If they are both not at 12 o'clock, then, yes, your timing is incorrect.

Make sure you orient the timing belt properly. When promperly installed, the printing on the belt should be upside down when viewed from the front (passenger side) of the engine.

Good luck.

Steve
89

 

[sdpatt]

Go here to see the correct alignment of the timing belt marks and pulley index marks for a 3.2L and 3.0L belt installation. The lower pulley index mark will align with the "3.0L" mark on the belt for the 3.0L and "3.2L" for the 3.2L engine. The one tooth difference in the length from the front bank cam pulley to the crank pulley is the idler pulley in the belt path of the 3.2L. The 3.0L has a straight path from the crank pulley to the front camshaft.

<small>[ September 29, 2002, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: sdpatt ]</small>