lina944

Hey all--

Hoping you can help shed some light on the situation I'm currently in...

So I was replacing the camshaft assembly gasket as a result of an oil spewing out right above the fourth header. In the process I did all the right things (or so i thought?) for setting the engine to TDC, removing the TB via spring tensioning roller (which is weird since i have a 1985.5 944 and i thought it didnt have this, possibly a new engine??) and I marked the TDC on the camshaft sprocket and belt to match the distributor housing mark, etc etc. I put everything back together today and the belt went on perfectly to match the sprocket marks and the sprocket TDC mark matched up with the distributor housing TDC mark as well as the TDC mark by the flywheel....

Then something weird happened. When I was tightening the "cheesehead" bolt on the cam sprocket, the cam sprocket turned with it...so I had a friend hold the crankshaft in position as I tightened it but the sprocket still moved out of TDC...

Now, when I put the engine in TDC (via flywheel marks), the sprocket is not aligned with the distributor TDC marks. It is about 19 teeth away.

My question is, can I remove the timing belt and turn the cam sprocket by hand while its on, or do I have to remove the camshaft assembly again, set the engine to TDC again then set the camshaft sprocket to TDC then put the camshaft assembly back and hope that the belt is in the right position?


Any help or insight would be appreciated...

Fara

You can turn the camshaft by hand, it's not a problem as long as the engine 90 degrees off TDC or BDC. Even if the engine is at TDC or BDC, unless you do something silly you still shouldn't have problems as long as you don't try to force it past the point where valve meets piston.

lina944

Fara,

Thanks for your response. How can I make sure its 90 degrees off? Right now the camshaft sprocket is 19 clicks away from the left and 21 clicks away from the right so based on that, I dont think it is 90 degrees off...?

Fara

When I say 90 degrees off, it doesn't need to be particularly accurate. It's simply the act of moving the cylinders away from the head.

If you want to estimate it, simply take a dowel through number 1 spark plug hole and rotate the engine till it's around halfway between the top and bottom.

To be accurate, you have to find TDC, then rotate the crank by 90 degrees using a ratchet.

jc85G

If I understand you correctly, you only turned the crank 1 revolution and now the cam is off 19 teeth?The crank/cam ratio is 2:1 not 1:1. Rotate the crank another 360° (carefully with the plugs out so you can feel if a valve does hit a piston) and you should be back to where you started. You may be 1 tooth off at that point.

GARG

I think he wants you to move the crank so all pistons are in mid stroke well away from touching, so you can turn the cam back.

Fara

This!

Why are words so hard?

lina944

Thanks guys, what I ended up doing was just taking the camshaft housing off and re-aligning. I checked with three rotations for TDC on sprocket and crank and it came out perfect! But now I have more troubles...

The car wont start! It's cranking, clicking etc but it just wont turn over. I have what appears to be about 1/4 tank of fuel and the car has only been sitting for about 1 month. Also, when I keep trying to crank it, the car pops a shot (burst of uncombusted fuel that is burned from the exhaust)

Any ideas?

GARG

that sure sounds like your timing is off

jc85G

Cranking is when it actually turns over, clicking is a click with no engine rotation. If it is trying to turn over but stops and the battery is charged, your problem may be a hydrostatic lock. Hydrostatic lock is when liquid is in the cylinders and the engine stops turning because it cannot compress it. You've turned it over by hand so there should not be a mechanical interference. Pull the plugs and crank it over to clear the cylinders. Check the plugs, if they're fouled pit in new ones and retry to start it.

jc85G

Its also possible your firing order is incorrect. Did you put the spark plug wires on correctly?

lina944

Gary,

If i hand cranked the engine twice and both times the TDC marks lined up, could the timing still be off?

And the battery is actually not charged enough, I had it hooked up to my other car's battery to charge it while this was happening...could that be the cause? At one point I almost heard the engine try to turn but it didnt.. All i hear is click click click then the fuel pops out the exhaust.

-Lina

lina944

I followed the order (top) 4 2 (bottom) 3 1. Is that correct?

jc85G

No, the firing order is 1-3-4-2. Its above the "S" in "p o r s c h e" on the cam tower.

lina944

Yes, this is how I installed it (reference the picture)

But I think I might have found the root of the problem...a weird shaped piece by the firewall/battery area actually fell out while I was tightening the camshaft housing. I though I put it back together correctly but now I found a mess of nonconnected hoses back there. The problem is that the heater core was removed from my car so I'm not sure which hoses go where anymore.

Here are the pictures...

What is this piece anyway? And where should it be connected to??