i need my car running by tomorrow...

[TurboSupra7]

I am in the middle of working on my supra. I am trying to replace the cam seals but I cannot remove the cam gears. I don't have any special tools, nor do i have a ride to get to autozone or o'reilly's. Anyways is there some trick to getting them off without the SST?

Another question when I aligned the marks on the cam gears with the marks on the timing cover the crank pulley was lined up more with the 10 than with the 0 mark. What effects was this having and was it ok for me to go ahead and line it up with the zero after the timing belt was slipped off the cam gears?

 

[koulee]

You will have problems setting the timing if the cam gears are off.

As for your other problem...taxi, bus, walking...

 

[Joel W.]

You can slip a screwdriver (wood handle) through the "spokes" of the cam gears to keep them from turning. I have always just held on to it with my hand.

It sounds like your a tooth off on the belt. Set the crank at zero and line up the cam marks.. Keep all the slack of the belt to the exhaust side of the motor....

The effect would be less power.

 

[TurboSupra7]

thanks for the fast replies!

I didn't even think to just hold it with my hands I guess it probably isn't torqued down very tight...40 ft/lbs or something like that. I'll go try that out and see what happens.

 

[aljordan]

You WILL NOT be able to time this car if it's not set up correctly. If you have to remove the cam gears, put the timing belt on, and break the bolt free (don't remove bolt), then remove the belt, and finally remove the bolt holding the cam gear. I think the manual reads to not remove the bolts with the belt hodling the gear.. but who cares. I've done it plenty of times. Plus you're in a pinch. I would prefer to remove teh cam cover and use the 32mm wrench to hold the cam and remove the bolt.. but ehh whatever.

Set the crank to 0 and align the cam gears and you sould be fine in regards to the timing.

 

[p5150]

The effect of it being off a tooth is that it wont start at all. Dont worry about smashing your valves with the pistons- these are non-interference motors.

Sometimes those bolts are very difficult to break torque on. Use a screwdriver or similar object to stick in the spokes to stop the rotation.

When you put the sprocket back on the camshaft, ensure that you put the dowel in the right hole and orientate the camshaft sprocket correctly.

 

[IHI-RHC7]

Yep, and the cams won't allign perfectly with the match marks.
The exhaust cam's mark will sit a hair to the left of the mark and the intake cam will sit a hair to the right when the engine is timed properly.

 

[tlo86]

i actually used a spare timing belt i had to hold my cam gears while i loosened/torqued them down. it looked quite rediculous but it worked well enough.... next time i will just buy the right tool =/

 

[TurboSupra7]

You WILL NOT be able to time this car if it's not set up correctly

So was it not okay for me to move the cam gears and crank separately? This timing stuff confuses me so much...

with the timing belt off the cam gears, I moved the crank to zero, and then individually turned the cam gears by hand to line up the match marks, is this gonna cause any problems?

 

[DaSuprawolf]

no, as long as the crank is at 0* and the cams are on their marks, put the belt back on. and i don't mean to confuse you but make sure your not 180* off, the cams turn once for every two turns of the crank. so with the marks lined up, make sure your at top dead center, compresion stroke.

 

[cjsupra90]

one other thing to chech when doing this is to stick a long 3/8" extension in through the #1 spark plug hole and rotate the crank and make sure that the bar is at the highes point when the crank pully lines up with 0. it the bar is at the highest point and it is not lined up with the 0 mark on the timing cover then your crank pully is messed up and you need a new one.

I have seen a few pullys from different cars including supras that have had to rubber insulator let go and the outer half slip. I am not saying that this is the case with yours but I would deffinitly check it being that you said that the make was lining up with the 10* mark.

 

[p5150]

no, as long as the crank is at 0* and the cams are on their marks, put the belt back on. and i don't mean to confuse you but make sure your not 180* off, the cams turn once for every two turns of the crank. so with the marks lined up, make sure your at top dead center, compresion stroke.

For valve timing, as long as all the marks line up you are good to go. The only thing that determines the "compression" or "exhaust" stroke is the position of the cams -not the crankshaft. So you dont really need to worry about it being 180 degrees out until you install the CPS.

After you install the belt, leave the tensioner loose (spring pressure only) and rotate the crankshaft a couple of times to equalize the tension on the belt and ensure that you have it installed correctly. Then tighten the lock bolt on the tensioner.

 

[boost fiend]

p5150 nailed it right.

when dealing with a dohc engine, set all your marks to where they belong. at TDC! then put the belt back on and with spring tension turn it by hand 2 - 3 times. makes sure it's all lined up and you are perfect! not much easier than that.

 

[hottscennessey]

I know by now you've got pleanty of options for removing the cam gears.. but personally, I put 10mm sockets on the bolts securing the black metal timing cover behind the gears. These bolts are between the sprokets and keeps the gears from moving.. making it easy to break free the center bolt of the cam gear. Anyways, I hope you got it straight. Do as boost fiend said and you're golden.

 

[TurboSupra7]

yeah that is how I ended up getting them off actually.

Well my car is back together now and it seems really slow and something definitely isn't right. Although it starts fine and revs fine it lost so much power.

Also the blue wire for the a/c fan switch on the thermostat housing snapped off and i have to solder it back together, but is it bad not to have the hooked up for now? I don't use my a/c at all...

 

[hottscennessey]

..well, the only thing you messed with was the cam timing, so make sure when you're at TDC on the crank pulley, you're cam gear's marks are pointing straight up. You may have missed a tooth when putting the belt back on, worst case scenario you'll have to play around with it a little more.

umm, I think you'll be fine driving it for a short while without the AC fan, but thats just me.

 

[billspreston01]

it can be a pita to make sure the teeth on the belt are just right, but if you read the tsrm it says how much slack there should be between the cam gears, the intake gear and the crankpulley, and the crank pully/tensioner/exaust gear.

You may have not set the cps right either...double check to make sure it's set at 10*...with the diag. box jumpered (t1 & e1? or something like that) because it'll throw your timing off 2*

 

[hottscennessey]

^Yup^ but chances are he didnt mess with the CPS for cam seals.

 

[IHI-RHC7]

True, but checking timing will tell him if the exhaust cam is alligned properly.
In order for the engine to be timed properly, the intake cam should rest with the trough between the match mark and the tooth to the left of it on the matchmark on the head, and the exhaust cam should rest with the trough between the matchmark and the tooth to the right lined up with the matchmark on the head. The best way to accurately set time is to loosen the tensioner and pull the exhaust cam clockwise to take tension out of the belt.
With the cam turned and the tensioner pulled back, tighten the bolt to hold the tensioner loose. Then with the crank at zero, (using a socket to verify that zero is actually tdc is a good idea, as our crank pullies can slip and becom einaccurate) turn the intake cam counter clockwise to pull all of the slack from the intake side of the engine. Then you can "slip" the gears individually tooth by tooth until they line up as I described above.
If it runs, you're only off one tooth max.

 

[aljordan]

Did you time (spark timing) the car?? I bet not since you didn't remove the CPS. You need to time the car properly. You'll need a timing light for this.

Also, as everyone else has said, ensure your cam gears and crank are timed correctly. This is cam timing we're talking about in this paragraph.