Its not slack in the cams. Its movement of the CVVT hub. The hub moves independently of the cam. You can move them easily with one hand, you wouldn't be able to move the cam as easily.

 

Ok good that makes me feel alot better. I looked and looked online and all i could find was, what i think is a 5 cyl. post and they were sping loaded. So I freaked.
But no I didnt touch the bolts on Cams. I read something few days ago not to touch them.
Right now i got them set to where i turned them past mark a tad then took them back to where the slack CCW stopped right at the mark.

 

Should I place the marks in the middle of this slack? or to one of its stops?

 

They should line up with the marks on the timing cover (if you had it set up that way from the start, like you should have)

 

Well I moved them to where the play is in between my marks, (becuse they got moved when trying to break that nut free in the begaining and the belt slipped but only a few teeth or so), that way I thought if CVVT needs to adjust timing it has adjustment in both directions of the marks.
I got all the timing marks lined up, timing belt on, tensioner adjusted and spun crank 3-4 rotations, nothing hit. Guess I will start putting everything else back on.

 

Well Its Finished and RUNNING!!!! Drove it up the street and back
I was so scared it wouldn't fire up. But it did like a champ.
Its got a slight miss at idle but smooths out once above 1k rpm. and has the power I been missing, since I been having to drive the boy's Cobalt, (what a POS), last 3 months.
It runs like it did before I started this quest, so I'm guessing its still a bit off time maybe.
Might take it to Volvo to do that part.

 

Just took XC on about 60 mile test. Did pretty good execpt for the slight miss at idle and tiny bit rough.
The check engine and reduced power light is still on. Dont know if that was suppose to clear its self off from before, or if i had to take it in to clear.
Anyways about 30 mile into the drive the check engine light start flashing and engine starts surging for about 10 sec then smooth back out. Then about 2 miles later do it again. Still wondering if Cams are off a couple teeth causing this.

 

Took care of it myself runs fine now.

 

Was the timing off or what?

Very glad to know nothing was damaged on the valves.

 

The CVVT have quite a bit of play. Like, move with one finger type of play, (a good inch worth of play) on these T6 cams, and with belt off. You can have these off 3-4 teeth with this play and it still run, but not very well. slight miss and sputter.
What i did was, pulled the T-bely off. Rotated the cams CW 1/4 turn past the marks, where the cams were kinda hard to turn with 2 hands, then slowly turned CCW to just dead at the marks.
That way all the slop or play was to the right of marks. Put everything back together and she smoothed right out. Runs like a dream.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm sure it will help others.

 

If needed i could put some things and pics together on this and post a separate topic.