jeffrey951

Hi guys. I posted earlier in a different thread. I blew my head gasket. So I am pulling the engine. My question is this: I am going to change the rod bearings, timing belts and balance shaft cover/seals. So right now the engine is at TDC. After pulling engine would you do belts & balance shaft seals and then take oil pan off and do rod bearings. I guess the question is if you lose the tdc reference how do u get it back when the cam gear is off? Just go by flywheel mark?

V2Rocket

flywheel mark is good, can verify with wooden dowel in the spark plug hole.

Tom M'Guinn

If you use an engine stand you probably won't have the flywheel to use but you can always just confirm visually with the head off. You might lock the flywheel and take the front pulley bolt out while it's in the car. They can be super tight and therefore difficult to remove on a stand. Might as well change front and rear main seals, AOS seals, check the oil pick up and change it's seals, the oil thermostat seals, etc. while it's out...

jeffrey951

Tom.

That is kind of why I was asking. I think I am goin to put it on an engine stand and On an engine stand with no flywheel and no cam gear how do u find tdc? I mean the head is off so I can physically see pistons 1 and 4 at the top of the bores now. I was just wondering if there is a preferred order. Like you said the aos, oil pan, balance shafts and I think the rms are all leaking so I was going to do them all. The car sat for 10 years and it seems like every o-ring dried out and now leaks.

Tom M'Guinn

You can find TDC with the head off by looking. You can use a dial gauge to find exact TDC but for purposes of putting the belt on the visual should be good enough. You can keep track of it with your own sharpie mark on the crank if helpful, and/or wooden dowel or a flashlight into the sparkplug hole. As for preferred order, just don't change a part that you have to remove again to get to another...

V2Rocket

if already on a stand and no FW to lock, you can get away by sticking a 2x4 between the crank counterweight and the inside of the engine block. just make sure to get any wood chips out..

KevinGross

You can use the famous George B. chopstick-in-cylinder-one-spark-bore technique.

931guru

Here's a tip: When reinstalling the camshafts after having them out, don't have the engine at TDC. If you rotate the crank about 90 degress off TDC, then all the pistons will be about halfway up the cylinder. In that case, there is no chance of bending a valve due to interference. Once you have the cams installed, you can then rotate (by hand) the crank until it is at TDC on #1, and then you can time the cams.