1. The two "dots" with which you use to correctly position the CAS into the head while at TDC on my unit are "reversed" in position compared to a few other units I've seen. I found in Positron's SR20 Prep thread that the CAS he used also had the same reversed marks as mine, so I will use his pic as a reference since I didn't take one of mine before:
OK, so note the position of his dots(which are the same as mine)
Now, look at the position of them on this new CAS from FRSport, which also have the dots in the same position as that shown in the FSM and also most websites "how-to's" of how to correctly position your CAS:
So, my first question is, why are the marks different on my CAS? Did Nissan change the position at some point, is it ok, does it matter, etc..
Now with that aside, I still lined up the CAS the way the FSM and other sites show using the dots in the same manner (even though they were reversed in position) Everything looked fine to me, as after matching the first dot with the mating mark on the CAS and inserting it into the head, the second dot rotated and lined up perfectly with the mating mark on the CAS.
I thought everything was cool, and upon doing some other work (installed crank pulley) I rotated the crank around "X" amount of revolutions to check that everything was cool with the newly installed valvetrain, and stopped rotating once everything came back to TDC again. It was at this point that I checked to see if the second dot was lined up with the mating mark on the CAS, (as it should be if things are done properly) and to my surprise it was!
Here's a pic (sorry it's hard to see, click to make it bigger):
The fact that I rotated everything and it all lined up to come back to TDC tells me that my timing checks out. Here's a pic showing everything lined up at TDC
Now for where I got confused, and on to my second question!
2. When I initially installed the CAS and the second dot had lined up, I noticed that the CAS was in a completely different position then it was when I had pulled it out of the head for the teardown. I thought the reason for this could be that somebody before me had played with the CAS position messing with the timing at some point and therefore it was off (however it WAS close to the middle position). Well, after doing some research I read that if you install the CAS correctly, it should roughly be in the MIDDLE position of where your two bolts to lock it down are. After I installed it into the head it is pretty much clocked one way and NOT in the middle. And also I read (from a JWT cam install/timing how to) that if the CAS is fully one way or the other and not in the middle after install, that something is WRONG.
So here is a pic of the position of my CAS and how it currently sits (you can see it's clocked "up")
So my second question is, being that everything lines up (timing chain links, dot on CAS) is this right or wrong?? It's not in the middle, but after looking at Positron's thread again his CAS wasn't exactly centered either after install.
Here's a pic of Posi's position
Wow guys sorry if this is confusing, I'm just confused myself. I guess I just want to know if my stuff's right, and if not what did I do wrong and how do I get this thing right? I mean I can see just rotating the CAS to the middle but I thought it was supposed to just end up there once you install it in the head. Did I install the CAS off by a tooth or something? ANY help or feedback would be greeeatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
*Also, I never had an issue with timing to my knowledge before I tore my motor down, so leads me to believe things line up ok with the CAS even though those damn "dots" are reversed
