Headwork/Timing

[OBTRICE]

Im following the writeup by Mrzabala for head removal. I have a couple Q's.First he says that it is ok to let the chain drop to the peg in the front of the engine. My question is wouldn't that change the positon of the chain on the crank messing up the timing? If that were to occur how can you know that the chain is in the correct postion?

Secondly if I leave the lifters in the head and turn it over I MUST bleed them, correct?

Thirdly and most importantly, I have no Idea how this happened. I set my motor to TDC and for some reason once I removed the chain tensioner, CAS, and started loosening the Cam gears I noticed that my crank pully was now at the second mark from the right and my cam gears looked like this:



If you look at the circled sections you can see the left link used to set TDC is directly over the dimple on the sprocket but the right link used to set TDC is slightly to the right. What did I do wrong? I swear both links were over the dimples when I set TDC.Can I just set everythig to TDC upon installation, or should I replace everything how it came out?

Does anyone have anymore suggestions for re-installation?

Alot of questions I know but I want to make sure I do everything right. Thank you in advance!

[Hijacker]

You can try to reposition the exhaust cam so it's lined up properly. A tooth off on the cam sprockets typically won't trash anything, but it will make your life hell trying to get the motor to idle.

Also, your crank probably moved off it's spot when you started futzing with the cam sprockets. No big deal so long as your upper marks are good and you didn't let the chain sag.

I have never once heard of anyone saying you could let the chain drop during head removal/replacement. The chain would drop off the crank sprocket and run the likelihood of jumping time. What I typically do is let the chain hang off the side of the block, keeping tension on the crank sprocket. I'll be able to visually show you what I mean in a little bit once I get my block back from the shop and start compiling pictures for my block rebuild DYI.

I recommend bleeding the lifters if they do get turned upside down. They may or may not tick, but if they do it's obnoxious. And a fairly easy fix for you at the point you're at.

I hope some of this helped you.

[OBTRICE]

Yes that did help. I know exactly what you mean, I have the chain ziptied off to the sides. But when I was removing the head one side did drop a little bit. Is there a way to check if the chain jumped a tooth on the crank without pulling the motor apart?

Also do you know of any detail write ups for installation? I need to find the specs on headbolts so I can se if I can reuse mine.

Thanks for the help.

[Hijacker]

All i can do for stretch limits is to point you to the FSM. However, I already can tell you that most times torque to yield bolts are recommended replaced on every install. I've successfully reused head bolts before, but that was probably more due to luck than anything. If your bolts are out of spec, just get a set of ARP head studs. You'll love life more.

As far as an easy way to tell if you're crank sprocket is off time, I can't think of one except to tear the motor down. There's just a reason why the FSM states that you don't let the chain sag down.

You can leave the head on and pull the timing cover off, BUT I recommend you pull the oil pan off to redo the gasket. When you pull the timing cover, you break the gasket, and you will never get it to reseal unless you completely redo the gasket.

[OBTRICE]

Thanks. I missed the stretch limits when reading the FSM. Ill have to look again.