Hi all,

I am in the process of removing the camshaft cover from a 5254T4 engine. I am in the middle of the process to position the cams and crank before removing the belt. I have VADIS. The marks on the cam gears and crank gear that VADIS is referring to are difficult to see (both on the car and in VADIS). Both exhaust and intake gears have a "line" that is between a series of "dots", and also a "M" looking mark. I cannot get either the "lines" or the "M"s of both gears simultaneously aligned with the notches in the upper camshaft cover. On the crank, I can see two teeth with slight notches cut into them, but no alignment mark on the engine.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Is there a better manual than VADIS? I am not too impressed with it; lacks details and illustrations/photos are awful.

Thanks in advance.

 

Nothing out there really any better than Vadis.
Alot of people have problems seeing the marks.
DO you have the balancer of the crank? The mark is easier to see with the pulley off.
Also you have to look closely to see the lines.

 

Tech: Thanks for the response. I do not have the damper off the crank. Will it be easier to see the mark on the engine with the damper off?

I attached a photo that I took of the intake cam gear. There is a upside down "M" at 12 o'clock, and a line with two dots on either sided of it at 4 o'clock. Is one of these two the alignment mark?

Thanks.

 

I modified your picture. I cannot see the bottom section of the pulley but where I put the blue line to should be the mark.
Yes you can see the bottom mark better with the dampner off.
Also before you remove the cams after taking the belt off turn the pulley foward and mark on the cam cover where it stops. Make the mark line up with the timing mark on the pulley. Then do the same going back so you can make sure it is set properly going back in.That is only on the VVT pulleys.

 

Hi Tech: Thanks alot. I would never have found that mark. They should have made it more obvious.

I don't understand your instructions to turn the pulley forward and make the marks on the cover. I do not plan on removing (or loosening) the gear from the VVT unit (blue piece). For re-assembly, isn't it just simply re-installing the gear on the cam and aligning the marks on the cam and crank?

Also, I am trying to remove the bolt holding the gear on the cam. It seems to be torqued to a high value. Is this the case? Also, I do not have the cam holding/alignment tool. Is this needed to remove the bolts, or for anything else as long as I am careful to not turn the cams? I do not plan to take them out of the head.

Thanks.

 

It would be best to have the cam lock tool.
Also the cam and pulley are not keyed. So once you loosen the bolt the pulley will spin freely on the cam till the end of time.

You should make a tool that locks the cam. Then mark the pulley and cam cover like I explained above and that will assure it is set properly.

 

Curious,

I have found the little tiny, tiny nitch in exhaust cam gear pulley, but for the life of me I can not find a similar mark on the intake can gear pulley. You can barely feel it with your finger nail, so besides looking, I tried to feel it like I did for exhaust side. No mark anywhere, but, there is a small line on opposite side into the tooth? That is the only mark I can find on intake gear pulley, so anyone see this before? Certainly don't want to make a mistake. I have seen so many variations on crank pulley, mine has a line on outside of pulley and hard to see unless you look at proper angle and others have two dots, mine has oil pump tab reference. It is 2005 XC90 2.5T as reference.

Thanks,