In the middle of a timing belt replacement on my 8. Locked the cams at TDC with the special tool. Belt is off.

Crank bolt has been a pain to get off. Impacter just slowly moves the crank. I never let it move too far, but I was wondering what position the valves are in at TDC. Are any open enough to hit a piston? Just need to know before I try more drastic measures to get this crank bolt out.

Thanks.

 

Well, I got the balance belt off without removing the crank or sensor. You have to rotate the crank, so the valves need to be at the TDC mark. Everything I read said TDC should have a little overlap in one cylinder and all others closed, so they shouldn't hit (fingers crossed here). I guess I'll find out in about 4 hours when the car is back together.

If someone has more details on valve and firing order, I am still interested.

 

You didn't bend any valves turning the motor some by hand. And you'd have to turn it like almost 180* for cylinder 2 and 3 to come up and touch valves.

 

Thanks. Fingers crossed everything is okay. Finally got the tension right. I originally installed the tensioner pulley upside down and while you could tension it, it was impossible to get the auto-tensioner happy that way, which I how I caught the mistake. Fixed it tonight and will clean and reinstall everything else tomorrow.

The special toolkit is a must. I have no idea how you'd set all this without the gear holder and tension tools. $50 well spent.