Rep Power: 313

Well here is my story.

I was following Hondas manual on how to replace a head gasket. It called for removal of the timing belt then removal of the cam gear which is fine. I took the timing belt off at TDC, then when removing the camshaft gear the stupid thing spun on me a lot. Basically until it stopped. I tried holding it in place but no way no how. So my question is how do I make sure the camshaft is TDC before installing the timing belt. ( I know the UP position and the two little marks on the side ) but how can i be absolutely sure they are lined up? The last thing I want is to get this car assembled and have the timing all out of whack. The other question is, what is the proper way to remove the camshaft gear?

Thanks in advance.

 
Rep Power: 0

yeah that happens a lot. when I replaced the cam gears in my supra they both moved. Did you mark your timing belt?? I really hope so because you'd be screwed if you didn't. if you did mark it then your ok. when it comes time to putting everything back together just make sure you rotate it back the same way it spun and line up the marks on the cam gears and the belt. After all of that just tighten the belt and make sure the mark is still good and that your crank is at TDC as well and you shouldn't have any issue's.

the proper way would be to use a cam gear pulley puller but as long as you can safely remove the gear with out stressing the cam you should be ok. I know with mine I just took my valve cover off and used a huge *** wrench to hold the cams in place (it has a hex located on the cam just for this reason) and the wrenched the bolts off.

At first I was worried as well about one of the cam shafts rotating due to the springs from the valve's but after a little but we got everything back to get and rotated it back the same way it spun and started up it fine. Just make sure you double check your valves and that they in the right spot for cylinder #1 in TDC.

 
Rep Power: 313

Figures. I both stressed the cam and did not mark the belt... now what lol. I'm going to get the cam checked by the machine shop to make sure everything is okay. Which still leaves me with the timing problem.

 
Rep Power: 313

Before i say that what do you mean stress the cam?

 
Rep Power: 0

as in cause a huge flex or damaged it some how. I mean they are big pieces of metal so they are pretty strong. How did you remove the gear? if anything you would do more damage to the camshaft seal then anything else so I wouldn't be 2 worried about it.

As for the timing.... that's going to be intresting trying to figure out. you could trying resetting it to TDC and then hope you get it on the right tooth and check it with a timing gun. the cam gears only go on one way because they are keyed so ou might be alright.

 
Rep Power: 313

Well... The cam gear came off pretty easy it wasn't too hard to remove because its pretty low torque... I'm going to set it to TDC and see what that does. It says in the manual that the proper way to do it is to set it to TDC on both the crank pulley and the cam gear and it should be okay... I should get it on the right tooth I'm hoping for the best. You worried me a little bit with the cam gear thing though haha.

Thanks a lot for your help, I'd rep ya but I have to spread it around

Oh I forgot to add the crank is at TDC, #1 is at the top

 
Rep Power: 0

sounds like your good then. And yes if everything is at TDC then you should be ok. If it runs ruff then you off a tooth in either direction so hopefully that helps. Good luck let me know how it goes.

 
Rep Power: 313

Yea I think I got it. I won't know for sure but I put the head and timing belt on today and both the cam gear and crank pulley are directly on TDC. The marks on the cam pulley are actually very good and easy to use. We will see tomorrow when I fire it up. Now just to figure out where this sensor goes that I seem not to have marked...!!!

 
Rep Power: 0

whats it look like/?? I'm sure someone here knows post a picture of it!

 
Rep Power: 313

I looked it up it was the TDC sensor. I've been super sick the last few days and I'm just not thinking straight.

Here is how i got the car back in time.

This is cam gear TDC. There is an "UP" mark on the cam gear, but there are also two notches on the gear itself. If you look at the gear on the side that faces the cylinder head you can see them. When they are lined up perfectly even with the block and the UP facing UP you know it's at TDC:



This is crank TDC:



Once these two are perfectly aligned and the timing belt is ON. Which was a bitch because every time I put the timing belt on the stupid crank would move out of TDC. It really takes two people to do properly. I spun the cam pulley twice counterclockwise with the timing belt installed, and everything was still lined up.

The final check is this. Once you put the crank pulley on, and it's torqued. It also has TDC marks on it. So, I spun the crank pulley 6 times counterclockwise and then set it to TDC with the markings in the following picture, and the cam gear was also TDC which means everything SHOULD be aligned. So essentially it was checked three times.

This is crank pulley TDC, it is best to look at it from above not below:



So that's it. How to realign your timing if your an idiot like me and forgot to mark things properly.

 
Rep Power: 313

I got the car started today (yay). It idled perfectly, and i revved it up a bit (not too high), everythign seems great. I basically did all this while I was bleeding the air out of the cooling system. Absolutely no leaks, timing seems perfect. The only thing I did notice is that in the 45 minutes that it was running, it got to optimal operating temperature and the upper rad hose was hot, and the lower rad hose was not. Is this because the car was not really driven? or do i have a plug somewhere? I still have a few things left to do before I drive it but I want to make sure I'm not going to overheat it if I do drive it around.

 
Rep Power: 0

sorry I didnt reply I didn't notice you posted on here again. Well you got it back together and started and everything seems fine... you revved it a bit and go it to normal temp. I'm guessing you didn't get any cords or did you? Temp is normal right? How cold out side was it? you didn't drive it right? also this was warming up while idling? I noticed that my civic takes a long time to warm up. if the upper pipe was warm then the lower pipe I would think would be as well. unless you have a bad *** fan and it's really cold out side?? I'll test this out with mine tomorrow because It's going to be like 40 in the morning so i'll see how the hose's are. what else do you have to do?

 
Rep Power: 313

Get any cords?

The latest update is!:

Got the car FULLY assembled today finally, which means I installed the splash shield basically. I've been afraid to drive it cuz I'm a wuss and have no faith in myself whatsoever. Went on the highway with it for about an hour, everything seemed good. Came home, popped the hood, the coolant in the overflow rose about.. 2 inches?? max.. First thing i did was think. ****!!! not again... I guess I burped some air into the tank because when the car cooled down the overflow settled right back where it was.

The lower hose is heating up now, just like it should... Your right it was probably too cool that day for it to heat up properly. The car has shown no signs at all of overheating since I've assembled it, but I bled it for a really, really long time to make sure there was no air in there.

The only thing I did notice is there is a high pitch noise coming from the Timing belt area that I never noticed before. I may be listening too hard because I'm a bit paranoid but can anyone confirm of a high pitch noise, it's not overly loud as I can't hear it with the hood closed...

^Thanks for all your help, I'm glad you don't hold a grudge While your checking, can you check to see how hard your rad hoses get when idling at normal operating temp?? Mine are hard as a rock.. I'm afraid of blowing one on the highway lol.

 
Rep Power: 0

I don't hold grudge not when it comes to putting out informaton. I just tell it how it is and what I know. Some times i'm wrong. glad your car is working out right and I totally forgot about burping the radiator so i'm pretty sure your good. I'm not sure about the pressure thing but i'll find out today.

-Chris