Jump to content
SAU Community

I Think I've Messed Up My Timing Belt Change

mistermeena

By mistermeena,
in General Maintenance

 Share

Recommended Posts

mistermeena Enthusiast

mistermeena

Posted
Posted

So I changed my timing belt, tensioners and water pump but I was apparently not paying enough attention to the instructions and now I'm worried.

Before I removed the belt, I only lined up the timing marks on the two cam pulleys up top and didn't pay attention to the mark on the crank. I was careful not to move anything, but the belt was hard to get on so now I'm worried that something might have moved.

I haven't fired the motor yet and I don't want to until I know this is right. So any advice on what I should do? Is there anyway I can safely check that it's lined up correctly?

scotty nm35 Grand Master

scotty nm35

Posted
Posted

A screwdriver down the first bore can give you close to top dead centre, then make sure the marks are correct on the cams.

Make sure you turn it over by hand first a few revolutions. That way you can be sure the valves aren't hitting the pistons.

mistermeena Enthusiast

mistermeena

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Ok so I need to get cyl 1 to tdc on the compression stroke, and at that point the two marks on the cam pulleys should line up? What about the mark on the crank - should that line up with the notch cut out on the bottom side, or should it be at the 0deg timing mark on the belt cover?

and if it turns easilly by hand (besides the resistance of compression) then the pistons arent hitting?

Edited by mistermeena
mistermeena Enthusiast

mistermeena

Posted
  • Author
Posted

ah yep so when cyl 1 is at tdc, the crank gear mark will be lined up with the notch on the oil pump? And if it's wrong on the cam gears I need to take the belt off and adjust them in the direction closest to making them line up?

Seriously hope it all lines up lol

533 RYC Proficient

533 RYC

Posted
Posted

Belts are a bit hard to get on, abit harder when they are new. You have to get them started on each sprocket, idler & then tensioner, then evenly push the belt on all the way around, it's the easiest way.

If you have doubts, before turning the engine over, get a mirror & visually sight that crank & cam marks are lined up. Then, slip the lower cover on & sit the balancer on the crank nose by hand & see if your marks line up. Then if all good, release your tensioner, bar the engine over 2 revolutions, re-check all 3 marks. If it's good, then hold the eccentric in that position with an allen key (please, do not add more tension, your only causing premature stretch in the belt & loading the idler & tensioner bearings unnecessarily!) & torque up the bolt.

If your in Sydney I could come & have a look.

533 RYC Proficient

533 RYC

Posted
Posted

ah yep so when cyl 1 is at tdc, the crank gear mark will be lined up with the notch on the oil pump? And if it's wrong on the cam gears I need to take the belt off and adjust them in the direction closest to making them line up?

Seriously hope it all lines up lol

Correct.

89CAL Grand Master

89CAL

Posted
Posted

Not exactly. The procedure is once you get the timing belt on, you rotate the engine backwards to put tension on the belt (Think it reccomends turning it over 3 times backwards by hand) then get an allen key to fit in the tensioner just to hold it in that position while you do it up.

I think thats right anyway. something along those lines anyway

533 RYC Proficient

533 RYC

Posted
Posted

Never ever turn an engine backwards (anti - clockwise)!

When fitting the tensioner, you need to wind up the spring so that after you have fitted the belt & release the tensioner BEFORE winding the engine over (clockwise) by hand, you actually already have spring tension applying force on the belt.

The whole purpose of winding the engine over (clockwise) is remove any slack from the installation process before torquing the bolt.

scotty nm35 Grand Master

scotty nm35

Posted
Posted

It just makes it hard to align the marks, as the slack is on the wrong side. Cam timing is important to get right.

I saw an RB26 actually running backwards the other day, both cams were 90 degrees out, set up like Toyota cam wheels accidentally. Exhaust was coming out the airbox and fresh air sucking in the exhaust. Once the marks were realigned properly it ran fine, didn't even bend a valve.

  • Like 1
jiffo Mentor

jiffo

Posted
Posted

ah yep so when cyl 1 is at tdc, the crank gear mark will be lined up with the notch on the oil pump? And if it's wrong on the cam gears I need to take the belt off and adjust them in the direction closest to making them line up?

Seriously hope it all lines up lol

Not to put too fine a point on it but with No1 at TDC you can still be 180 out on the cams.

So don't panic if the cam marks don't appear with No1 at TDC.

Turn the crank another revolution and then see if the cam marks are looking better when referenced against the back cover.

Don't take any notice of markings on the belt at this stage.

Not cranking an engine backwards harks from timing chain engines with hydraulic tensioners. With the engine cranked backwards, the spring pre-tensioner may be insufficient to keep the chain on the sprockets.

GTRPSI Mentor

GTRPSI

Posted
Posted

I saw an RB26 actually running backwards the other day, both cams were 90 degrees out, set up like Toyota cam wheels accidentally. Exhaust was coming out the airbox and fresh air sucking in the exhaust. Once the marks were realigned properly it ran fine, didn't even bend a valve.

Yep saw the same one as you Scotty, the issue was they were black tomie cam gears and the dot was not highlighted in white, silly bugger set them up like 2Jz gears not seeing the dot.

When i got home i looked at my gears and the dots had a dab of white paint on them, go figure, maybe not genuine tomie cam gears?

I had a backup set of valves on my bench if he needed them, didnt in the end, it surprised me.

That car ended up back on the hoist a few days later, they had setup antilag on it and a new clutch, owner spent the next day doing launches showing his mates and destroyed the clutch, never gave it a chance to bed in properly.....

533 RYC Proficient

533 RYC

Posted
Posted

It just makes it hard to align the marks, as the slack is on the wrong side. Cam timing is important to get right.

I saw an RB26 actually running backwards the other day, both cams were 90 degrees out, set up like Toyota cam wheels accidentally. Exhaust was coming out the airbox and fresh air sucking in the exhaust. Once the marks were realigned properly it ran fine, didn't even bend a valve.

Yep saw the same one as you Scotty, the issue was they were black tomie cam gears and the dot was not highlighted in white, silly bugger set them up like 2Jz gears not seeing the dot.

When i got home i looked at my gears and the dots had a dab of white paint on them, go figure, maybe not genuine tomie cam gears?

I had a backup set of valves on my bench if he needed them, didnt in the end, it surprised me.

That car ended up back on the hoist a few days later, they had setup antilag on it and a new clutch, owner spent the next day doing launches showing his mates and destroyed the clutch, never gave it a chance to bed in properly.....

Hahahahaha RB26 Honda engine!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • sunsetR33
      Unpeeling the Orange

      By sunsetR33 · Posted

      Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • Kapr
      What brakes on R34 GTT(Europe)

      By Kapr · Posted

      No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • wizlb
      Who has a Infiniti Q60, Q50 (V37)?

      By wizlb · Posted

      I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Kinkstaah
      Starting again

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
    • GTSBoy
      What brakes on R34 GTT(Europe)

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      I'm not going to recommend an EBC pad. I don't like them. Just about anything else would suit me better. I've been using Intima pads for a while now.
×
×
  • Create New...