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Fidanza Cam Gear Trouble

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Clutch GSX

15+ Year Contributor
347
1
Nov 28, 2006
Denver, Colorado
I am trying to install Fidanza adjustable cam gears but they did not come with any instructions. Below is a picture of the alignment marks. As you can see they do not line up and the teeth are off. Both gears are turned as far as they can inward without compressing the springs. The intake gear seems to be in line with the head but in order to get the marks to line up I would have to hold the exhaust gear while it is compressing the spring. Obviously this is not how its supposed to work since I can't do the timing belt while holding the cam gear the whole time. Both adjustments are set to 0 and the dowel pins are up. I really don't want to mess up my timing and ruin a $8,000 engine.

I told this to Fidanza and they want me to send the gears back for an inspection but the gears are already installed on my cams with red loctite and I'm so close to getting this car running I really don't want to bother. I'm hoping someone here knows more than the people at fidanza and can just help me so I don't have to bother taking them off, shipping them and waiting for them to do whatever it is that they need to do.

Anyone have any ideas or have had this problem before? Thanks.

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pull your intake came back some, and use a longer straight edge. It needs to go through both sides of the gears. Also the point of the adj gears is so you can "degree in your cams" Which means adjusting them + or - untill they match the specs(valve closing, valve opening, overlap, lobe center) on the cam card, or your tuner's heart's desire. When you do that the marks won't mean anything anyway.
 
You will need to turn the exhaust cam a little in order to make the marks line up. It's like that with all of these engines. ~1-2 tooth positions. Just make sure the intake is dead on, then line the exhaust to it.
 
I'm not able to turn either cam any more without compressing the springs. There is no way to do the timing job if I have to hold the exhuast cam the whole time. This cannot be the way its supposed to work. I'm aware that the straight edge should go through both lines but the problem is that the cams wont turn anymore than they are now.

I was thinking that maybe I should just adjust the cam gears so that the lines line up. I can't see how that would mess anything up but it just doesn't feel right.
 
You HAVE to compress the exhaust springs some. That's just the way its done.

Start with the intake cam, use some zap straps to hold the belt on, then work the belt around everything in a clockwise direction. ie. intake cam-idler pulley-oil pump sprocket-crank sprocket- tensioner pulley-exhaust cam. when you get to the exhaust cam, turn it a bit so the marks line up and put the belt over it. You will have to hold it with a screwdriver or something as you do. Once its on you can zap strap that one too, but its not needed at that point. Then go through the procedure to set the tension.
 
As autotalon said, you DO need to compress the springs on the exhaust side to get the marks to line up. You need to use some type of clamp to hold the belt in place on the cam gears.

1) Position intake cam where you want it, put belt on intake cam gear then clamp it in place.

2) Use a 17mm wrench on exhaust cam gear bolt to rotate it clockwise. Align it with the intake side then slide belt on. Now clamp that in place.

3) Once the belt is clamped onto both cam gears verify that marks are aligned and proceed with remainder of tbelt procedure.

Everything you need to know is here: Timing Belt VFAQ
 
Thanks guys. Thats what I needed to know. I just wanted to be sure since its such a crutial part of the build. :thumb:
 
Pick up one of these. It makes doing a Tbelt job so much easier.


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Pick up one of these. It makes doing a Tbelt job so much easier.


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Oh shit! I have one of those! I completely forgot. Thanks for reminding me man. Haha :ohdamn:
 
ShottH: I am bringing this back up for a quick question.

When you have the cams locked in to position, do your white lines on the fidanza line up correctly?

Neither of my marks are in the middle of the teeth. In other words, the marks aren't in the same place as factory gears.

Have there been any bad batches of fidanza gears?
 
ShottH: I am bringing this back up for a quick question.

When you have the cams locked in to position, do your white lines on the fidanza line up correctly?

Neither of my marks are in the middle of the teeth. In other words, the marks aren't in the same place as factory gears.

Have there been any bad batches of fidanza gears?

The white lines will line up almost perfectly when the gears are set correctly. Use the white tool shown in the picture above to hold the gears in place with the lines matched up and install the timing belt. Make sure you have the alignment pin from the cams in the correct hole in the cam gears. Mine had one labeled EVO and the other hole wasnt labeled. You use the one that is not labeled.
 
ShottH: I am bringing this back up for a quick question.

When you have the cams locked in to position, do your white lines on the fidanza line up correctly?

Neither of my marks are in the middle of the teeth. In other words, the marks aren't in the same place as factory gears.

Have there been any bad batches of fidanza gears?
Make sure your cam gear fix tool isn't upside down. The gear marks won't align with the tool upside down.
 
As some one pointed out you do need to compress the springs, more so on the exhaust side i think.

One thing that helped me a TON was the little tip hidden in the middle of the Vfaq on it

here's the paragraph copied from vfaq
vfaq.com tbelt instal said:
NOTE: THE EXHAUST CAMSHAFT SPROCKET MAY ROTATE IN THE COUNTERCLOCKWISE DIRECTION. THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN INSTALLING THE TIMING BELT. (What this means is that in some cases, lining up the timing marks on the sprockets won't work - when the tensioner is tightened, it will pull the exhaust sprocket, and the camshaft marks won't line up, while the bottom ones are lined up. If this happens to you, try setting the exhaust sprocket one tooth off in the clockwise direction (mark below the head plane), clamp the belt to the sprockets, then rotate the sprockets a little so the intake mark is slightly above the head plane and the exhaust is slightly below, with the bottom 3 marks lined up. Then the marks should align when you tension the belt - but try with the marks lined up with the head plane first)

Everytime i do my belt i can line the cams up and the crank will be off from it's mark by the width of the notch in the crack disk. But doing it the above way i get perfect results every time. Otherwise i can do it 15 times and it will never be perfect, that way it's dead on the first time every time and i have the same Fidanza gears as you

glenn
 
ShottH: I am bringing this back up for a quick question.

When you have the cams locked in to position, do your white lines on the fidanza line up correctly?

Neither of my marks are in the middle of the teeth. In other words, the marks aren't in the same place as factory gears.

Have there been any bad batches of fidanza gears?

Re-check the marks on the factory gears (ie their marks aren't centered either) ;)

On a side note, I didn't have any luck using the white cam gear lock when I did my last TB job. Believe it wasn't holding the gears in the correct position. I tired it many time as I had the belt on & off several times but never had any luck. I'm sure I tried it all possible ways with all my playing around, but maybe not. Ended up having to do it the old fashion way :coy:
 
another way to keep from holding again'st the springs is to loosen the adjustment bolts on the gears and let teh cams move, intall the belt with the marks properly lined up then loosen gear bolts again and bring that cams back into "0" with the outer gear ring, but hell it's not hard to do it once you try the way in the vfaq, like I said, first time every time :D
 
+1 on having to have the marks not perfectly aligned while putting the belt on. the first time i tried it by lining the marks up, once i tensioned the belt they were off. had to rotate both cams clockwise a tooth, put belt on, and tension. once it was tight the marks were perfectly lined up :D
 
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