Finally getting my motor back together and doing the timing belt, marks were lined up perfect, but didnt have the tension tool and was doing a ghetto way of doing it (not the prybar way) but my friend has the tool so I let him do it since I had to get to work and the tool makes it way easier...now the motor is put in the car but the top of the belt between the 2 cams has SLACK, I can move it up and down a good amount. This is NOT normal correct?? He used to work at a very well known evo shop and has been working on these motors for years but I don't see how this is good? He said it only does it because it's at TDC (but would be tight if the motor had stopped at a spot other than TDC) so the cams are "rotating in" pulling the belt in from both sides thus making the belt slack between the gears. Isn't the point of the tensioner to absorb the slack when you get on it and to keep the belt tight at all times? I wasnt there when he did it but I don't think he rechecked the tensioner grenade pin after turning the motor over and waiting for the tensioner to readjust.......which would explain all this.

I plan on redoing it myself tomorrow but just getting some opinions on this
Thanks

 

It will have some slack between the cams, about how many mm does it move? You don't want it rock solid tight either or it will be over tensioned.

 

if the tires are on the car and rock the car forward it will tighten up, or spin the motor a tad by hand

 

At TDC there will be some slack. Move the crank a 1/4 turn and everything should tighten up.

 

O ok, so it is normal for this. I still want to pull of the lower cover and see if the grenade pin goes in and out freely but now I feel better with it hearing its normal

 

exact same thing happened with my cambelt.
i reinstalled and retensioned it 3 times.. same result every time.
like other people said, move past TDC and there is no problem.
It's normal

 

I feel better knowin it, can the lower cover be taken off with the motor in the car?

As in without touching the motor mounts or anything else?

 

Nope, you have to pull a few things off first like acc belt and tensioner, crank pully, motor mount, ect.

 

get yourself a breaker bar with the right size socket for the crank...you can turn it by hand like someone said after one turn or so should tighten up unless either the tensioner or the pulley is bad....now you do realize theres two tdcs theres one on the compression stroke and one on the exhaust stroke...to make sure your on true tdc, cam marks and crank mark must line up...thats a possibility too... do the first and if it dont work, like i said possible bad hydraulic tensioner.

 

I just had the motor out and while it was out I changed the timing belt and tensioner with OEM ones, all the marks are lined up perfect, was just worried about the tension since I'm **** with everything and dont trust anyone unless I do it myself or watch them do it. I don't think most people know that you should wait like 15 mins to give time for the tensioner to adjust, I trust he did the right tension but just not that he gave it time and rechecked it to see if the tension changed after initial tightening

 

Just an update I took it apart and went to go put the pin in the tensioner hole and I couldnt even locate the "locate" the hole with the pin so the tension was wayy too loose. Took a few times but now I got it PERFECT and it sucks if you don't have the tool, luckily was able to borrow his. There is some belt deflection between the cam gears but nothing like before. Will be starting it tomorrow and all should be good to go. Also primed the oil pump for some time while I had the belt off with my 1/2 electric impact gun to get the oil pumped throughout the engine and turbo.

 

hey i got my old belt off and i have not timed this engine before. Ware is the tdc mark on the crank and how do you line up the balance shafts?

 

I got my engine going and all seems well except for some little things but need to double check on the belt....

I had never touched a 4g63 up till 3 months ago so I did hours of research and messing around and now I'm prob as confident as a pro doing this. I could write everything out but theres way too many good write-ups with pics to show exactly what to do but a quick overview is theres a notch in the gold plate (crank sensor trigger) right behind the crank belt pulley. The notch lines up with a little arrow at the 11oclockish position of that plate....and theres a dot on the oil pump sprocket that lines up with another little arrow at the 10'oclock position (only really needed if still got the b-shafts) then go up to the exhaust cam, then other cam and you get the rest. Start in the order I said since the last part is the side you want to have the slack which is taken up/absorbed by the tensioner. If you have time to do this BUY the tensioner adjusting tool with the 2 little prongs, some use a prybar and I tried it and started to dent the pulley surface and everytime you tighten the pulley bolt it loosens the adjustment so you need to make it a hair tighter to adjust for it, and dont forget to set it, turn the motor over at least 3 times (it takes 3 times for everything to get everything lined back up again) and then WAIT at least 15 minutes to let the hydraulic tensioner adjust and if the grenade pin or proper size allen key slides in and out smoooooth without any dragging then its the right tension. It took me alot of time to get it right and to get the hang of it.

Here's one good link with bunch of pics, I could post some if needed or just go on yahoo or here and type in 4g63 timing belt install or something, I found plenty of good info from here and the internet. I figured out a good way to get the belt on everything WITHOUT the use of those plastic things that hold the cam gears in place OR with that goofy way with 3 wrenches so they dont move (since the cams try and turn in when theyre at TDC. Let me know and I'll explain how I do it now

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-belt-how.html

 

i have timed multipul 4g63's befor. the carnk marks, and cam marks are diff on my evo from my dsm's. Im going to try to time it tonight using the how to for the marks.

 

The crank, balnce shaft and oil pump marks are the same, only the cams changed, you will noice two lines almost vertice on the valve cover right about each cam gear, you use these