Scared to change my own timing chain...

[mkory]

What worries me is that I'll somehow mess up the cam positioning. Then, when I go to start it.... Bent valves and all that goes along with them hitting the piston. What can I do to ease these worries? Is there any DEFINATE way to prevent this from happening?

[lrb_2000]

mark the position of everything...? that's what I did.

[180fan]

Yeah, loosen the cam towers and all the valves will close shut. Then you can rotate the cam around to TDC approximately and then when you're ready to have the links lined up, you can move the cam till you're dead on and then tighten down the cam towers. What motor is this for btw?

[mkory]

It's for the KA... and I'm not to sure of what you just said.

[:: orion ::]

Do the whole job PER THE FSM...everyhting should be in time.

Then turn the motor over by hand slowly before you start it...if there is valve interference, it will stop turning. If that happens, put it back to TDC, retime everything, and try again.

It's really not that hard...line up the dots with the different coloerd links on the timing chain(s) and the cams. Easy.

- Brian

[mkory]

Wait, so when you order a timing chain set, the cam gears and chain already come with dots on them to line up?

[180fan]

Yes, there are punchmarks on the sprockets that you line up the colored links to.

[mkory]

are there marks on the stock cams that show where to line up the gears?

[180fan]

The cams will fit into the sprockets only one way. The sprockets have markings to show you were to line up the colored links. Have you looked over the job with an FSM yet?

[mkory]

No... I remember seeing a link to a pdf of one, but I didn't down load it then, and can't seem to remember where it was. That would definately help.

I didn't know the cam sprockets would fit only one way. My old car's cam sprockets weren't keyed or anything, they'd fit on however you tightened them down... seems like a bad idea to me, but easier to advance the cam timing which was already way retarded on that motor.

[bcar240]

I can hook you up with that section of the PDF. Is it for the E or DE? I have both.

[Red coupe]

My sig has a link to the FSM...you can also check by turning the motor over by hand before starting it, I dont think you could turn it hard enough with a wrench to bend valves....do it a few times then check a make sure the marks all still line up...setting it up is actualy not to complex, its just hard to get at..

[mkory]

Actually I googled it and found the FSM for my car. It's a '95 with a stock, of course, DE. Anyways, I was reading this and it's talking about taking off the exhaust heat shield, and the head and some other stuff. Anyways... I know you don't have to do ALL that.

Anyways, I was only planing on changing my upper timing chain because of the noise it makes against the guides. So that'd be chain, sprockets, and tensioner. Is there a way to tell if the lower needs changed? That seems to be really hard and I definately won't do that myself. Changing the upper looks much easier, just the valve cover, distributer, and timing chain cover from what I gather.

[Red coupe]

If I were you Id just remove the guides and see if that takes care of it..upper timing cover and valve cover are easy and a new gasket is fairly cheap...Thank Ilikemy240 for this one...(Click Me)

[mkory]

Yeah... I thought about just removing the guides. Then, after a little thinking, I realized it might be best to do the whole thing. When the chain gets old and stretches, it's essentially weakened. That's why it rattles on the guides. Even if I remove the guides, it'll still be weak, and probably should be replaced. Is this correct? I'm just afraid the thing is gonna break and I'll have a ton of head work on my hands.

[mkory]

So, how will I know if the entire chain needs replaced or not? What about the lower, how would I know if that needs replaced too?