Timing help/ question !!!

[kauait]

Hows it going guys new to the forums here..

i have a subaru legacy 2.5 gt sedan , auto..

 

i had the car for a couple months bought it with a blown head gasket.. so i pulled the engine got the head resurfaced lapped the valves all new gaskets and everything put the engine back to gether.. and was running fine.. i noticed a little oil leak the other day so pulled the radiator fans the two belts.. then the plastic cover for the timing belt.

 

 

!!!seen an oil leak behind one of the idler pulleys so i ************ing for some stupid reason took the pulley off before turning the engine to TDC !!!!!! what do i do now??????? didnt touch it yet can i remove the belt and turn the crankshaft sproket to center and then line up all the other marks?

[johnceggleston]

the cam sprockets MAY be spring loaded and want to snap closed. this is your concern. if you can stop them from doing that you should be ok.

 

generally speaking, snapping shut will not hurt anything. but snapping shut when the other cam / valves are open may be a problem. this never happens when the belt is right but if one cam turns while the other is stationary, you just never know. valve to valve can cause damage. but in theory, valves snapping shut usually are moving away from damage.

 

so i would leave the cams alone, don't touch them. and rotate the crank sprocket the shortest distance, left or right, so the key way slot is either straight up or straight down. down is better, but not if you have to go more than 90 degrees to get there. (when the key way is at 12 or 6 o'clock position, the pistons are all at half bore, mid stroke. no way they can hit a valve then.

 

then i would try and get lucky with the cams. turning each one the direction of least resistance until they are all at rest, no tension. (when the valves on a cam are all closed the cam sprocket has a bit of slack in it.) or maybe turning both cams on one side together, clockwise, until one is at rest. from there you can rotate the other cam closed. do this for both sides and you are good to go and can do what ever you need.

Edited January 5, 2012 by johnceggleston

[porcupine73]

1. You do _not_ want any cylinders at TDC when you remove the timing belt! That lets the valves hit the pistons. You want the timing marks aligned, that is the safe position for doing the timing belt.

 

2. Since yours is the dohc you to a degree have to worry about the intake and exhaust valves hitting, but normally if you have the marks lined up, even if the cams do move, they snap closed rather than to a position where they would hit each other.

 

I don't know for sure but I would say if you can get the pulley back in before rotating the belt that would probably be best. But the tensioner is probably fully extended now so that won't be possible.

 

So if turning the crank by hand, I've seen people say just go slow and if you feel any resistance to stop. Might be easiest to have the plugs out when doing that so as to not fight any potential compression.