spanky

Hello to all:This falls under its better to ask and appear stupid than not ask and screw up: Located engine TDC by the cam position marks being lined up and # 1 piston being up high , installed flywheel lock into place. replaced water pump, 2 bal shaft seals. Crank shaft seal replacment req's removal of the woodruf key and mine was stuck badly. In order to remove the key I removed the crank shaft lock, marked the fly wheel position at the bell housing hole for the starter and rotated the crank shaft to a better position for stricking the key. 3 hrs later after lots of heat and WD 40, cursing and tapping it came out. The cam position was never moved or changed during any of this and was rechecked to confirm this as fact. I rotated tha crank shaft clockwise back to line up the marks on the bellhousing hole/ flywheel that i had made made earlier, then reinstalled the fly wheel lock back into position then wrapped up the rest of this repair. Did I get the engine back into the correct TDC position is my question. Thanks in advance.

Chris White

You should be fine – but you might as well double check the TDC on the crank – there are marks on the flywheel by the reference sensors and also on the bottom there is a mark that lines up with a notch in the bellhousing….unless you have an aluminum flywheel…

Tom M'Guinn

Even if you put it back exactly where it was, you need to check the tdc mark on the flywheel. When you reinstall the timing belt, there's really no way to know whether you are spot on without confirming that the cam and flywheel marks line up at the same time. It's common for the alignment to be a tooth or two off after you reinstall the belt if you don't check that both marks are lined up at the same time. Also, you shouldn't turn the crank when the timing belt is off like that unless you are darn sure you're not turning a piston into an open valve. You can get away with turning it a bit, but you need to be careful.

spanky

Thanks, I found the mark notch/located at th bottom of the bell housing and I was about 1/8" off which I corrected. Everything is lined up now and spot on their marks. Thanks again.

Tom M'Guinn

Sounds good. The most important thing of course is to make sure both marks still line up after the belt is installed and tensioned.

Mark944na86

If you rotated the crank out of time with the cam, how did you make sure to prevent piston/valve contact? Moving the crank back to its original position will mean you are back to correct timing, but possibly with bent valves in the process!

Or am I missing something basic here?

spanky

That is very much a possibility that I ve bent valves, you didnt miss anything basic at all. I did that. I couldnt reinstall the belt as there was not enough key above the surface to the crank sheft that wasnt deformed to hold the belt pulley in place from tapping it. I need to do a compression test to see if im still in the 150's across all 4 cylinders. If not then I ve screwed up and off comes the head for a valve replacment. A mistake on my part for sure for being only focused on getting the dammed key out Any suggestions on how to proceed from this point without doing futher damage would be most helpful. Thanks.

cruise98

You are probably OK, but next time use some small cable end cutters on the woodruff key. It will come out in a minute or less.

spanky

Thanks. Will do.