Ok, here's the situation. after installing my Pnp'd head and reground cam approx 3 months back, car's been running fine bar a few little oil leaks, one being the rocker cover. pulled it off today to fix, and found this:
That silver link should be on the tooth the indented mark is, which is 2 teeth away. Engine rotation is clockwise by the way. Everything is how it should be, no. 1 piston at TDC, distributor rotor is pointing toward no. 1 spark plug lead and cam dowel is at the top. Can i be off so many teeth without having damaged the engine? Is this a common mistake to be made when re-installing everything? Will i be safe to retard the cam back 2 teeth to have the silver link aligned with the mark?
URGENT - cam timing question!
Relax, you're probably fine. Do NOT change the timing from where it's at right now, unless you are absolutely certain it's wrong, and it probably isn't. The chain has X number of links, and your sprocket has Y number of teeth. Unless X is an exact multiple of Y, it will be off by a different number of teeth every time you bring the silver link around. As an example, assume your sprocket had 20 teeth, and assume the chain had 100 links. In this case, the marks would line up every 5 camshaft revolutions. NOW assume the sprocket had 20 teeth and the chain had 101 links. In this case, after 5 cam revolutions, the silver link would be off by 1. Another 5 revolutions, and the silver link would be off by 2.If you turn your crankshaft forward by hand until the silver link comes back around, I am certain it will be off from the sprocket mark by a different number. The *important* thing is to make sure that the # of links between the chain and the sprocket is the same for all sprockets on the camshafts and on the crankshaft.But without you actually pulling the front cover off, you can't really verify this, but as you said, you would have noticed if something was wrong. If you don't touch the timing, then I think you're fine. To be certain, after you close up, turn the crankshaft by hand to make sure there are no interferences. Always a good habit.