Hey guys, did my timing belt today and before I took the timing set apart I marked the relationship of the cams to each other. Get everything off, everything but the belt back on, and I'm lining the the intake and exhaust cam dashes up to the valve cover and I look at my marks I made and the are a decent bit away from each other, maybe a tooth away. Is it possible the belt stretched that far and I was that far out of time? Car drove fine, pulled hard and no issues, just turned over 60k and it was still on the factory belt beforehand. Any input wouldn't be greatly appreciated, I should have it buttoned up Tuesday, waiting on water pump gasket.

 

70 views and nobody has run into this? I'm obviously going to line the cams, crank, oil pump and balancing shaft to the factory markings, it just seems odd to be that far off.

 

When I did a cam install, timing chain and water pump on my SR20 I used a timing gun. They're worth the money and more accurate than making timing marks. It is possible the belt stretched a little bit but I don't think it'd stretch as far as a tooth. If that was the case your timing was off by quite a bit.

Did you make sure the motor is at TDC?

 

You need the cams perfectly aligned on the valve cover marks (this is where it takes two people unless you have the Jay Racing/AMS cam gear "stay" tool) and both the crank and oil pump gears should be one tooth off counter-clockwise, prior to tensioning. That way when you tension everything down, all 4 marks will be spot on with tension on the belt.

HTH,
Todd

 

Thanks for the info, yes I have jays tools and the crank and balancing shaft were easy to get lined up, my balancing shaft belt did seem to have a lot of excessive deflection, the new one I put on is within spec.

 

Everything needs to line up spot on! And remember, the balance shaft only lines up every 3 revolutions. Its not that easy to get in line if you had the belt off and moved the pulley.

 

Yea I made sure everything was at tdc before I took the belt off

 

I've probably posted this twenty times, but if you belt changers would just paint marks across the belt sprocket and onto the belt, then transfer the marks on the old belt to the new belt, when you install the new belt, if the marks line up, it is right.

 

Your marks need to line up. You don't need a stupid timing gun and neither the AMS gear tool. It doesn't take 2 people and you should go 3 teeth forward and turn it all backwards once tensioned.

If the top gears are off a tooth still, its a best case scenario as with the tensioner tool inserted, you can pull the belt off the cam gears and adjust them where they need to go with a wrench on the 17mm cam bolt.

 

I used a timing gun on my SR20 because that motor was very sensitive to timing. Call it stupid, but it works. I guess I prefer doing it once instead of twice.

 

Bentley manual states, retard exhaust cam one tooth back, along with the oil sprocket, and crank. Intake should line up spot on, there should be no slack on the exhaust side of the cam, in between the exhaust and intake cam, and between the oil pump and crank; all slack should be by the tensioner. I follow the steps to a t and the oil pump ended up being one tooth back, when the crank, intake, and exhaust cams all line up.

 

I've changed my belt about 3 times on different evo's they all re-aligned up perfect. you do have to put some pressure holding the exhaust side still and turning the intake came to slide the belt on in the proper spot how I do it and I dont have a special tool or do it with anyone else. I'll count the teeth on the belt tomorrow and let you know. I ALWAYS count them before i remove it anyways to check< just incase.

 

Every car is sensitive to timing. Mechanical and ignition.
Timing lights are generally for ignition timing. If the exhaust cam is timed correctly, the light does nothing for you

I've never had an issue with timing belts on evos. Never had I retarded teeth, or used holding tools, other than box end wrenches. Although I've done an ***-load of t belts at the dealership, which may be why I did it differently.
There's more than one way to skin a cat

 

Yea everything lined up, the car fired and runs fine, I dunno I guess I'm just being ****.

 

The reason you would have used a timing light on a sr20 motor is because it uses a rotor style distributer for ignition if built before 1994.When you adjust the rotor,a timing light helps. It would serve absolutely no purpose on a 4g63 with electronic/digital ignition.