do timimg chain or not?

[wild_maxx]

i am going kae-t soon and i was wondering if i should do the timing chain and guids before i put the motor back in? the motor has 97k miles on it and i dont think i has ever had any timing work done on it. there is a slight tick at idle but not enough to even notice with trying so should i save myself the time in the long run and do it now? i was wondering how u tell if the #1 piston is at tdc? is it the red line on the crank pully?

and is this the dot on the left that i am supposed to line up the silver chain link with?

[:: orion ::]

Yes, red line is #1 TDC...

The trick is getting that dot on the gear to line up with the odd-colored link AND have the motor end up at TDC #1. It will take a TON of turning by hand to get it there, unless you're lucky.

- Brian

[sil80drifter]

do it while the engine is out of the car, it'll save you so much hassle later, when the car is turbo. it's a PITA to do it on an NA, with turbo you ar adding mroe parts for you to take off and on when you doit. right now it's cake, take the cover off, do the chain, and ur done.

sil80

[wild_maxx]

do the chain and tensioners right? is it really a pretty simple job just unbolt old stuff and replace with new?

[Arrow]

I believe that it is just that simple... well, asider from getting new gaskets as well. Just replace the chain guides and tensioner... that should do it.. just make sure that everything lines up properly! Good luck!

[slipnfall]

The trick is getting that dot on the gear to line up with the odd-colored link AND have the motor end up at TDC #1.

I lined up my timing marks exactly when I was assembling my KA. After I turned it over once or twice, the colored links moved away from the sprocket marks. Like orion said, I'd have to keep turning it for a while to get it to line back up. I didn't want to turn it over more than nec. The key point is that they are all *on* mark, or the same distance/direction away from the marks. ie you can have a colored link two away from the idler sprocket mark, as long as the cam sprocket marks each are two links away, in the same direction.

Just make sure your pulley is at TDC, and your front-most I/E cam lobes are pointing outwards. Otherwise you'll be doing a valve job too. Check out JWT's pdf on installing cams, it helps a lot.

Hope that made sense.

::edit:: oh and you'd be a fool not to do timing work now, while the engine is easily accessable. If you find yourself doing it on-car, you'll be regretting it. It's not that bad, but not *nearly* as smooth. Anyways, that chain will last the life of the body, it's not like a belt that you have to worry about catastrophically breaking. Same as the sprockets, inspect them, it's unlikely they have any abnormal wear.

At the least change your guides & remove upper ones(what year BTW?). Inspect the tensioners, make sure they're not clogged/gunked up. Chain and sprockets should be fine.

Ideally you should do the chains/sprocket/drive spacer too, but they aren't high wear items. I'm with Sil80, do it all now, there'll be much less worry/hassle down the road. Judgement call for peace of mind I suppose.

::edit::

HTH

Modified by slipnfall at 9:25 AM 2/22/2005

Modified by slipnfall at 9:26 AM 2/22/2005
Modified by slipnfall at 9:27 AM 2/22/2005

[slipnfall]

errrr, my bad, this is an 'E'. I assumed w/only 97k it had to be a DE!

So disregard anything above that doesn't apply.

-Slip