Mrmerlin

The reason to put the crank at the 45 degree mark is so the valves wont hit the pistons .

Doc I would also add a few notes.
first to put the engine crank at 45 deg from TDC you would go CCW . (about 1/8th of a turn back to the 45 deg mark)
Next when turning the cams you use the bigger nut looking part its either a 30 or 32 mm .
DO NOT use the 17MM head to turn the cams.
If you remove the crank bolt (its 27mm deep socket) then you can feel where the keyway is if the groove is facing the 3 O clock position then the crank is at the 45 degree mark.
( Note this is when facing the engine and the keyway is pointing to the DS fender)
Note TDC the keyway will be at about 4 O clock.

Lastly, if you have no idea about what your being directed to do, then step away from the car and have someone thats familiar with the timing system assist you so you dont create further damage

Lizard928

I would do everything on this at TDC personally.

And I agree with the commend about if you dont understand all of this.

The cams large nut is 30mm.
Crank bolt is 27 as previously mentioned.

the flyin' scotsman

Ron..............be very carefull if your doing this yourself without previous experience.

Locking the engine with the correct tool and then swapping the damper around is the way to start.

Those of us with 'huge' experience get a little carried away

jeff spahn

I was just throwing that out there. I wrench in my cars myself as well but I saw he said he had it done at a shop so I figured, "hey throw out the idea".
I am putting in new motor mounts this winter while the car sits and waits for the snow to go away.
Seeing the comments on when that was done sure says to do it yourself now.

Don't know til you ask.

Giovanni

Balancer being the wrong way has nothing to do with your car troubles but you need to install the balance correctly IF you intend to check for timing! If you think the timing is NOT an issue, then start looking else. By your explanations I doubt you are having any TB failure/issues. The engine rotated easily with a wrench and you had intermitted sympthoms in the past year or so.

Hilton

Hi Ron,

Your description of the symptoms and past sounds to me the MAF is bad, and the car's running in "limp home" mode. Running rich, poor idle , and already replaced a lot of the sensors.. not many candidates left.

(note - this is not to be confused with running on 4 cylinders, limp home mode is what the LH goes into when it has no MAF signal).

Before replacing it however, fix the balancer, and check the cam timing. If the car ran ok for a week after the TBWP job, it could be something as simple as loose cam gear bolts, but still very expensive if something breaks as a result, assuming it hasn't already.

nord

I think i'm going to start with putting my balancer right and checking my timing.
If i understand you guys right removing the balancer will not affect my timing belt?.

I'm guessing the shop just looked up the engine removed the old belt and put a new on one without checking timing marks..beacuse it's not possible to check.

When i've turned the balancer and i'm sure my timing is correct i can do a compresion test and see if it's all o.k internally.!

I'm used to wrench on my cars...just not the timing belt on my 928.
But as you can see it's been giving me trouble since the TB/WP job was done so i'm not trusting a shop with it again...nearest Porsche dealer is 2000 km away.

bogdan

It's not your timing that's ****ed up...Anyway, put your balancer the right way and check the timing 10 times...then focus on the electrical equipment of the car. If you have SPARK and FUEL (seems that you have alot of this) does not necesary mean that you have the right TIME and QUANTITY for the to be delivered! In the first pace I would leave the mf timing belt parannoia alone and check the MAF and ECU and EVERY ignition system component. IF that service shop mismatched your timing THEN it would had ran like crap from the start, not after a week as you described!

Imo000

if the timing is off by one tooth, the car will run OK but will be down on power. So what you said before, sounds they got the timing off and you have something else going on too.

nord

I agree!
Can i pull my balancer without disturbing my cam timing?

jcorenman

Yes. The timing belt is driven by the crank sprocket which is behind the balancer. Removing and flipping the balancer won't effect the timing belt.

bogdan

Borrow a known-working MAF and ECU after you sort out your timing and see if it works.

Charley B

Or switch yours, one at a time, into a known well running 928, if available, in order to eliminate the possibility of more than one issue existing and confusing the issue.

docmirror

Yes. The crank timing sprocket runs behind the balancer. Note the large washer back there too, that's important to torquing the crank back down.

Thanks to merlin for getting the direction of the 45deg mark right. As for turning it to 45, I am against it because there is no way to check the cam timing at that position. We need to know the cam timing in relation to the crank. Being at 45 is safer but not very useful. Also, I use a 17mm on the cam bolt to move it all the time. If the bolt moves when you turn the cam, the bolt is not torqued right. The larger flanged nut under the bolt is used to anti-torque the cam when the cam bolt is removed, and installed. Since no flats are available on the cam when the cover is on, that flat flanged nut is used only for anti-torque when messing with the cam bolt.

Mrmerlin

what i meant by dont turn the cam with the 17mm bolt is with the timing belt connected this will loosen the bolt if its turned in the CCW direction, as the cam will be turning the whole belt run