I just finished reassembling my engine after a head gasket replacement. Everything went back together great, because of labeling. When I tried to start it up it didn't even act like it would start, so I figured the timing was 180 out. I pulled the distributor and went to turn my crank around once, but I noticed there are a couple of notches in the pulley. How can I figure out which one is the correct notch? Since I could have installed the timing belt off of the incorrect notch, I can't really look at the closed valves on the heads. I'm not even sure how to do that with the engine assembled. Can someone give me a couple of pointers on how to figure out which of these notches is TDC? Once I find TDC, I can backtrack and check my timing belt and distributor. Please don't send me pages from the FSMs, because i have those. I need some greasy hand advice.

If anyone is in Albuquerque, I'll buy the BBQ and beer if you want to come help me brainstorm this thing.

I'll be working on it today, so send any advice or comments you have. I'm finishing up a welded Zuk Mod today to fix my sagging backend.

Ben

 

uh, yeah... DOHC... And the crank... 2 cams + 1 crank = 3

You follow the FSM?

 

I followed the FSM for installing the timing belt and distributor on the notch I THOUGHT was TDC. But then after it wouldn't start I realized the notch I thought was TDC may not have actually been TDC. So now I wondering if there is anyway to figure out which of thes notches is actually TDC. The FSM assumes that there is only one notch on the crank pulley. I have three. If I knew which one it was I could base all of my other adjustments off of that. Is there a way to figure this out without disassembling the entire top end?

 

Tried - I just read your email again. I am talking about 3 TDC notches on the crank pulley. Normally the crank pulley has 1 notch that you line up with 0 to get TDC then install your timing belt and distributor off of that. I just realized that there are 3 notches on my lower pulley. All of them have been filed, so I can't figure out which one is the "real" one. The TDC notches on my cam gears are fine.

 

Ya...take a long wooden dowel, and stick it down in the #1 spark plug hole, slowly turn the crank until that piston reaches the top, then use whichever notch is closest....

 

Team420 - That makes perfect sense. I'll go do that now.

 

420- you are the man! I found which notch is right and I did indeed set everything off of the wrong notch. Thanks for the help!

If let you guys know when I get it going

 

If you followed fsm procedure you aligned the timing belt off the TDC mark on the timing gear, not the crank pulley, right??

To find the right mark on the crank pulley you could set crank position by the timing gear, then temp mount the lower timing cover and pulley, which of course has a keyway, and then look for the mark on the pulley that aligns with the 0 degree timing mark.

But the chopstick technique works without removing all that stuff. As long as it isn't too short and you drop it in there.