Need Help with Timing Belt

[gomer]

I have a 93 Festy with 186,000 miles , runs great (I owned this same exact car 30k ago) ... this is actually my 3rd/4th one... I bought this one last weekend with a blown head gasket,, #1 burned through towards the distributor... changed the usual gaskets ,, intake , exhaust , head ,, throttle body etc. When I eyeballed the timing tensioner it appeared to be the same as what I am used to with VW's ,, an idler on an eccentric... on VW's it isn't spring loaded , you just pull it around until you get good tension and tighten it down... this one seems to be spring loaded ,, my problem is I can't see real well what to do... and I accidentally rotated the crank (car was in gear and got pushed.. DOH!)

1.) Is the "0" mark the stamped line and does it line up with the cast line that is machined bright?
2.) How do I verify the crank/rotating assembly is at "0" I don't see timing marks..
3.) How do I get that blasted belt on??? (belt was new about 20k ago according to receipts for water pump and timing belt)

Thanks in advance..

[aithanmier]

there is a howto on setting the timing...it's in the articles section somewhere...do a search.

[gomer]

Thanks...

Found the "how to" ,, it doesn't answer the primary question of how to determine when the engine is at tdc on #1 , I always had the valvetrain at "0"... the crank had moved...

Q1: which cylinder is #1 , distributor end or water pump end? or doesn't it matter as 1&4 and 2&3 look as if they move together..
Q2: my car has a timing scale at/above the main crank pulley , however after rotating the crank through a few revolutions I am still not finding a reference mark to align with... the timing scale has the symbol "T" and "6" (maybe it's a "9") where is the "0" reference mark on the pulley?

If all else fails I could use physical TDC to set timing ... just wait til the piston "parks" and then split the difference when movement begins in forward and reverse rotation... but that leaves a 50/50 chance of picking (ignition) time 180 degrees out of phase...

Thanks again...

[aithanmier]

you can't get it on the wrong cycle, it's an overhead cam. set the cam right after the crank is at tdc and your automatically on the right stoke...so find tdc and then line up your cam pulley marks and your good to go.

[gomer]

I found a repair manual ,, after mid 89 the main pulleys have no marks (as is the case with mine) which begs the question ,, why even have a timing scale???(too lazy to change the molds for the cover?) ,, anyway I got tdc on #1 (which BTW is what I thought was #4,, #1 is passenger side) and it runs ,, must be off by a tooth as it only has high rpm power ,, which should mean that the cam is retarded ,, need to advance 1 tooth...

[aithanmier]

hey if your car has power i'd leave it alone, no one else has managed that trick out of a b3 :twisted:

[rotinaj13]

usually if it is one tooth off it will run like crap either way. When i finished the aspire it was 1 adv. and ran like crap. the festy was a tooth retard and ran like crap.

[gomer]

Yeah , a full tooth is way too much to be off ,,, I used to auto-x a 86 GTI and had its cam 4deg advanced (special sprocket) , really pulled good from the slow corners.. This festy has a great stereo (the key is having good quality tweets aimed at the windshield to move the sound stage forward) too bad it's in the worlds noisiest car... I may just turn around and sell it at the local pizza place, they always need reliable 40mpg cars..

The really funny thing is I may end up buying a new 2005/2006 festy (KIA Pride/Mazda 121) soon in the Philippines ,, 4dr. with a/c. 1.2l 5spd.