Ive read through the DIY timing belt changes and have the manual but i just need clarification. I got this car from a friend and he was going to do the water pump because it was leaking. Like an idiot he just snipped the timing belt before marking anything. Then when he couldnt get the crank pulley bolt off he gave up and now the car is mine.

My question is that when i go to put the new timing belt on do i just need to line the cam "up" and marks aligned with the head, and line up the timing belt drive pulley with the mark on the block, and then line the crank pulley to tdc. Is there any thing special i should keep attention to seeing as how the timing belt was just cut without anything being lined up or marked?

 

Setting timing with belt off and belt on:

 

OK those help, but i have just a quick question. my crank has 4 marks and none are painted white. in this picture do i line up to the one thats singled out?


and one more thing. In my manual it talks about lining up the marks on the flywheel/flexplate? I have an a/t and i cant find any space thats open for me to even try to look and line any marks up. Is this needed? Or as long as line up the cam marks up top, the crank pulley to the cover, and the timing pulley to the block im good to go?

Also is there any way that the valves could have been damaged by someone turning the crank by hand while trying to remove the pulley nut & the timing belt off?

 

TDC1 for the crank is when the lone mark separated from the group of three aligns with the pointer.

I don't know what the alignment of the flywheel is.

I guess it would be possible to do damage by turning the crank by hand, though less likely than when the engine is running.

 

So im about to toss the new belt on, just a couple more questions. My crank drive pulley has a "notch" as well as a white mark 180 deg apart. which one do i line to the pointer on the block?

My manual says balancer but i do not see any balancer belt, does the sohc engine not use this?

here are a few pictures about what im talking about.
in these first cam pictures the manual says to line up with the head but the "pointers" are offset from the head so im assuming to line up with the pointers and not the plane of the head/'block(green line is head plane)



In these crank pictures should the notch line up with the pointer? and the white mark with the "****" in the block like i have circled?

 

Ignore the white mark on the crank gear. Someone else probably marked the gear and previous timing belt for reference.

View the cam pulley from the back side where you will see the same marks on the pulley. It's much easier to align the mark on the back side of the cam pulley with the top of the head surface.

 

So it looks to be good but i can see that i wont be able to tell if its a tooth off until i actually start the thing because i can line the cam to the plane of the head on one tooth and then line them to the pointers on the very next tooth. so ill cross my fingers.

i measured deflection just above the lower cover and got just over 1/2" of deflection. my manual does not have a specification, this feels a tad loose does 1/2" sound correct?

 

If you have a stock 99 engine, align the two marks on the cam with the top of the head to achieve TDC1 (see diagrams).

You need to tension the belt precisely as described in the service manual (see Manuals link in my signature). Make sure that you only turn the crank counterclockwise during this process. Did you replace the belt tensioner.

 

Unfortunatly I didnot replace the tensioner because the car came with everything else and just didn't buying extra parts even though I'm sure it's recommended to replace it. I followed the steps in haynes, loosen tensioner and push down, then tighten while pushed down. Run belt around all pulleys, then loosen bolt on tensioner and then tighten tensioner belt. Then I turned the crank about 4 rotations.

 

So i just fired the car up and everything sounded ok. let is sit for a minute and the idle wouldnt drop down and then i got a hunting idle going maybe 750-2000-750-2000. Im not sure exactly because there is no tach. So i tossed the timing light on and it looks like timing is severely advanced. If i were talking about the picture below the pointer is lining up with the green mark way to the left and from what i read its supposed to be lined up with the center of the 3 marks at 16btdc correct? which means im somewhere like 25btdc the way it looks. Now does this mean I am one tooth off on the belt?