Okay so does the cam gears line up to the mark on the valve cover every time the crank pulley's marks lines up? I had some idling issues and took my cam cover off to see if it lines up and it seems like when I line the crank pulley up to the "+" mark, my cam gears are about one tooth off each. Could my timing have slipped a tooth?
Also, when the engine is running, my belt does not look like its running smooth, it runs kind of flappy. Is that normal??

 

My recollection is there are 18 teeth between the 2 pullies. If one tooth slipped, you'd know by counting. If 2 teeth slipped (one on each pulley), you would only know by the crank angle mark to the timing gear marks.

 

Did anyone save the PDFs from the first two posts?

 

Yes, but they're still in the first post....what's the problem?

 

I tried opening them and it says "There was an error opening this document. This file cannot be found.".

 

I have them plus the PDFs of the factory service manual. PM me with your email address and I'll send them your way.

 

^ Thanks.

Weird though, I tried opening them at home and they worked fine. Got them now saved. I'll be tackling this (just the belt part) on Friday.

 

18?, i thought it was 17.

 

I'm 97% sure it is 18. Can someone else verify?

 

I'm 99% sure it is 18 for the EVO 8s. Not 100% sure with Mivec.

Check out:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...as-wanted.html

That is, start at your front timing gear and its mark. Start counting the teeth on the timing belt to the left side of this mark, and end on the left side of the rear timing gear mark. Thus, that would mean 17 between the marks...but that wasn't the way I was counting

 

Okay, so when the tensioner pulley is in its correct position, which direction does the two holes face? Down or up?

 

Post a picture...that will help a lot here!

 

Well, I ended up tightening it at the 5 O'clock position.

 

Really what is most important is where you able to put the pin back in the tensioner after 15 minutes?

 

No I was not able to. Am I suppose to?