Hey guys I have a leaking waterpump I think so I figure I might as well do the belt at same time. Just a few questions before I tackle the job

Will it damage the engine if I turn the intake and exhaust cams at separate times with the belt off so that I can adjust the lil scribe mark to the cut-out in the cover.

The most important thing is to keep the crankshaft scribe lined up correct?

Also when I look at my cams I notice more than one scribe mark in them =s, any idea which one to use?

Thanks in advance

 

DO NOT MOVE ANYTHING WITH THE TIMING BELT OFF. Yes it will damage the engine. The only way you can touch the crankshaft without a belt on is if you take the cams out. There are probably more than one mark on them because when other people do the timing belt, they put their own marks on there. If you take off the belt, it's hard to move the crank and cams, so you shouldn't have to worry about any of them moving while it's off, but if it's your first time doing it, I would recommend getting a cam lock tool similar to IPD's.

 

Ive actually done it twice. I never used a camming tool, just line up the camshaft timing mark before taking the belt off. I was just curious about the makrs really.
How do you correct the timing if it is off?

 

Well, if you've never touched or moved everything when the belt was off, it shouldn't be out of time. I guess really the only way would be to do this:



With the cams out you can spin the crank to realign the timing mark, and then when you drop the cams back in, set them correctly and it will be back in time. But if you never touched it, it shouldn't be out of time.

 

There is a slight bit of room to move the cams/crank with the belt off.

 

But doing that will also change your cam timing, which may be good, but could also be bad. If you change one correctly, and the other incorrectly, it could really mess up your power band.

 

Yes you can adjust some.
I made my comment more as a reference because alot of people think you cannot move them at all. I am meaning more like when doing a timing belt.

I have had a car that I had to put back together after that took the belt off and I was not sure if it was correct or not. They did not line up the marks first. So I had to turn the cams and crank to line it all back up. It was about 180 off to start with.