I’ve been replacing the head gasket on my 1997 Volvo 960. I just put the valve/cam cover on with the anaerobic sealant. The video I watched by Robert DIY, where he talks about whiteblock volvo head removal, he said that you can move the cams 360° when the crank is on mark (0°, not TDC). Since he’s working on a 5 cyl, I wanted to double check this. On some post on another forum someone was talking about their 960 and needed timing help, someone confirmed that you can move the cams 360° when the crank is at 0°.

I was feeling confident about this, I had my earbuds in, but as I was rotating the intake cam to put it at its 0°, I got the bright idea to take my earbuds out so that I could listen and I’m definitely certain I heard an off noise coming from the engine along with some resistance. I figured some resistance was normal as the cams push on the valves but now I’m doubting myself and believe I may have bent some valves on both the exhaust and intake side. Can anyone confirm or deny that the cams can move freely when the crank is at 0°? I have the Chiton handbook and it doesn’t make any mention of it, it doesn’t even seem to explicitly mention that it’s an interference engine. Any help would be appreciated

 

Why rotate the cams fer?