cam install questions/problems

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seanjuan

seanjuan

Senior Member
I began work yesterday changing out my stock b16a cams for a set of skunk2 stage1s
I am not changing the timing belt at this time so I am attempting to just slip the belt off the old pulleys and onto the new adjustable pulleys
the problem is that when I try to line everything up the cams don't sit right
I have the crank pulley mark lined up with the mark on the belt cover and the allignment marks on the new gears are lined up but one of the vtec lobes is preventing the cam from setting correctly

I'm not sure what the problem is but any tips would be appreciated
I don't think it would be wise to just put the cam caps on and tighten them down like this... I'm affraid somethig would break

thanks for the help
 
Work your way from the front of the engine to the back. You want all the slack to be on the backside of the engine. Make sure the crank is at TDC, and then slip the belt over the exhaust pulley first, taking as much slack as possible on that side. Slowly inch the belt over the intake pulley. After you get the belt over both of the cam gears, rotate the crank counter clockwise a little bit: enough to take the rest of the slack out of the front of the belt. The tensioner bolt should be loose enough to allow the tensioner to take up the slack in the belt. Tighten the tensioner up after getting all the slack out, and rotate the crank a couple of revs to make sure the gear marks line up. They should line up just fine. I know how frustrating it can be to get the timing belt on if this is your first time. Hope this helps you out.
Mike
 
thanks
I think that I didn't losen the tensioner bolt, so hopefully that is the problem
I'm going to duck out of work early today and hopefully get that taken care of

hopefully that is it because I still have to adjust valve clearance and reset the timing and get the cams broken in before an autoX this sunday

do think it would be pretty safe to set the cams at +1 for the intake and -1 for the exhaust. or would it be better to just leave them both at 0 until i can get it tuned?

thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes

anyone else have any ideas or tips?
 
Safe, but I'd just leave them at zero until you get a chance to tune them.
 
so I guess what I was worried about was that when the timing marks line up with cyl 1 at tdc there are valves open on cyl 2 which means that the lobes on that part of the cam are pushing down on those rockers
this means that without the cam caps on the cams tilt toward the timing belt
so all I have to do is put the caps on and the spraybars and start tightening the bolts down little by little until everything is sitting flush.... does this make sense?
 
ok
I tightened everything down and I think I'm good to go now
I just have to adjust the valves and the distributor
I got a start on the valves but have a question about that too

the range for the intake is 15-19 so the natural assumption would be to set it to 17 but the feeler gauges I have doesn't have a 17 so I have to decide between 16 and 18 for the intake
the exhaust I can hit the middle with a 19

is it better to be on one side or the other of the middle when adjusting?
also, if I'm going to change the degree of the the intake and exhaust cam I should do that before adjusting the clearances correct?

thanks
 
Blanco said:
An engine builder told me that a looser valve lash will provide more power.

Do you have two feeler guages you can put together to make 17?
Click to expand...

I don't have guages that add to 17

but according to your "engine builder friend" I should set the intake to 18 and the exhaust to 20

these settings would be one step looser than the middle of the range

anyone else have an opinion on this?

thanks blanco
 
I was thinking about it more and it seems like if you made the gap smaller it would open the valve more... isn't that the point of larger cams?
but at the same time I don't really know much about engines and bigger isn't always better

thanks though
 
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