Setting Cam Timing with Unkown Crank Orientation

[bigbird94]

To make a long story short I have a 1992 Talon TSI that just had the head rebuilt and upon first start up a large oil leak was coming from the exhaust cam (thanks to the shop for not installing cam seals in my head). I decided to remove the belt and cam gears to clean all of the oil from these components and put it in the new cam seals etc. I proceeded to brake both cam gear bolts free and remove the cam gears/ and timing belt.

The problem is that my stupid ass never lined up the timing marks on the engine before pulling the timing belt off.

So now my cam dowels are in opposite directions and my relative crank position unknown. I am afraid to turn anything right now in fear of valve to piston contact. I know for sure I can take the head off and turn both the cam gears and crank by hand and put it back together that way but Id rather leave the head on ( and cams ) in place if possible.


Can I just remove the cams, line my crank up with the timing mark, and reinstall my cams with the dowel pins at the proper, 12 o'clock position, and then install the timing belt?



*Balance shafts have been removed and are not a factor*

 

[Mach1TaloN]

why on earth would you remove the cams? Put the pistons where they are in the middle, put the dowels up top, line the crank up and install the belt.

Everything you've said is correct except the part about not being able to turn the crank independently of the cams. With a screwdriver, dowel, etc. on top of the piston for reference you just need to determine which way to spin the crank so that all pistons are moving towards the middle of their stroke. When the belt is off there is no reason that you can't spin the crank counterclockwise.

This is what i'd do. There's no way you could bend valves by hand unless your intensionally cranking on it. Using a dowel of some sort is a good idea for reference though. Plus, with all the pistons mid stroke, they are far enough away that they shouldn't come into contact with any valves. This is simple and don't require any unbolting, repositioning or torquing.

 

[bigbird94]

Not necessarily. The seals don't have to be in place in order to install the cams. But since the cam caps were already off it would have been very easy to put the seals in place and then install the cam cap that goes over it (what I would have done). The seals can also be pressed in if not removing the cams or the respective cam cap. Either way, the shop really should have discussed this with you.

Out of curiosity, who reinstalled the cam gears?

I installed the cam gears thinking that the seal was already installed. I didnt even think of checking to see if they put seals in there.

In the end, it is my fault for assuming they were installed. I do think they should have warned me about it though.