Basically long story short I installed gsc s2 cams, with upgraded valve springs and retainers all appears to go well there.. So now I have to time everything.
I have the cam gears timed correctly well at least it looks like it is. So I time everything up belt tensioner is correct, pin slides in and out with little to no resistance, which to my understanding is correct. Now I go to rotate by hand and I may get 1/4 turn and it won't budge. Obviously something is preventing it from moving. Only thing I can think of is my crank gear is questionable on if that was timed correctly. But I can't get it any better on that hash mark. Would the crank gear being 1 tooth off cause it to not rotate by hand?

I hope someone can help a fellow guy out, I'm being stubborn here and not giving up...
I guess if it comes down to it i will post some pictures of my current situation. This has been driving me literally nuts, I hate not able to figure something like this out...

 

Hello!

There are a couple pieces of information that may be helpful here.

To make sure you have the cams timed right, the lobes on cylinder 1 should face away from each other parallel to the ground or pretty damn close to it. If one is up and the other is not, you have an issue.

The notch on the crank trigger plate should be aligned with the “peg” if you want to call it that on the oil pump. I have found that there is always a bit of grace there but so long as that marker is within the notch you should be good.

Have you taken the spark plugs out of the motor to see if it turns easier by doing so?

I have always been able to turn the crank with a ratchet on the crank, to clarify that as turning by hand. I have never been able to turn the crank with just my hand once everything else was hooked up, not to bear down on the semantics.

There are high points on the compression stroke where turning the crank is much more difficult than others but if you pull the plugs that should eliminate that issue.

 

I will review this things mentioned and follow up. But everything should be lined up. But somewhere theres an issue.

 

Did you bleed down the hydraulic valve adjusters? If not you might be getting some sort of spring bind.

 

Nope that was done too

 

I’m thinking we are going to need pictures here.
You didn’t remove the crank trigger plate by chance, did you?
Do you have MIVEC? Did you disassemble/reassemble the gear?

Did you install the exhaust and intake cams on the wrong side?

 

I did remove the trigger plate, but im 100% confident it installed correctly. I do have mivec, but i did not disassemble the gear. But did remove the gear from the stock cam. But I did remove both cams and compared them to the old cams and I'm 100% that is correct also.

What I think I'm getting hung up is where the cam gears need to be relation to the valve cover. It is difficult to line them up properly which it shouldnt, I do have multiple cam holding tools from stm, extremepsi. But if anyone would help me out it would be greatly appreciated... also since these forums seems dead nowadays unfortunately miss those days too. If anyone has Facebook pm me your name maybe we could discuss.. if not I understand and will post the questions etc here.

 

The valve cover has notches to line up with the cam gears. They may not line up *perfectly* but it should be pretty dang close. I always end up resting my VC on the head a couple times as I am lining things up. I have to take my timing covers off this weekend so if you are still working on this I can count the teeth on the timing belt between the hashes if you need.


To confirm, the trigger plate notch should be on the leading edge or the fin. If it is on the trailing end(behind) the fin as it rotates clockwise, you have the plate on wrong.

It really sounds like you have some contact going on. Put the crank at TDC, take a picture of the cam gears, the cams and the trigger plate, then post them up. That will tell us enough of what’s going on.

 

Will do.

 

Not sure if I mentioned, but would the crank gear being advanced 1 tooth would that prevent the engine from being turned over by hand?

 

Not sure if I mentioned, but would the crank gear being advanced 1 tooth would that prevent the engine from being turned over by hand?

 

 

It might be the lighting but the cam gear positions look off to me? I don't see the cut out on either gear or the white mark on the exhaust one?
Might just be the picture though, hard to say.

 

I'm pretty sure they are good at this point.

 

From the pictures it looks like you have everything lined up. Did you take off the valve cover off to check the lobe orientation? I had an issue on a rebuilt cam gear that put the intake cam 90* out but the gears lined up.

Did you pull the spark plugs and see if that made the rotation easier?

I’ll have my covers off later today to show for reference.