As far as I know everything with this motor is stock and oem. I bought it from a junkyard with 48k miles on it. The only thing that I have done is the 1.8 cam swap and lightweight pullies. This started to occur after the cam swap. Ill try swapping the 2.0 cam back in and see if that changes anything. But until then idk what else could be doing it. Oo and btw, if i jus have the exhaust cam in and the intake cam out, no problems what so ever. Its only the intake valves that do it, and its on cylinders 1 and 4 when everything is timed up like its supposed too be. Not sure if that was helpful or not.

 

are you sure the 1.8 cam (if its one you haven't used yourself before) is the right cam? i guess for now the best thing to do is see what happens with the 2.0 intake cam.

 

Doing it once, by hand, probably won't hurt anything. . . spin the engine backwards once if you want to see it hit 2 & 3 first.

Try the 2L cam and see if it will turn over. While you are in there, have a peek at the piston crowns when they are at BDC (so you can see more of the piston) and see what you can see. I hate to mention it but I have a hunch you will be pulling the head if you don't find "the problem" with the suggestions already given

 

Ok well I had the chance to work on the motor, (its at my buddy's house) but I dropped the 2.0 cam back in and lined everything back up and all and the same issue still occured. In this is with everything lined up. But i did notice that when they both start to hit, if im rotating the motor clockwise, the valves will hit the #1 piston when the crank gear is like 1.5 teeth away from being tdc(mark on crank gear doesnt quite make it). But lets say I rotate it counter clockwise like you suggested and the valves will hit #4 piston and have like close to like 1 tooth from being tdc. Its stupid. Did that make any sense at all? Hope it did.

Ok so I did some messing with it and kept the cams at tdc and timed like they are supposed to be. But instead of lining the crank gear up like it was supposed to be, I turned it 180 degrees so now the mark is lined up with a dip in the side of the block. The dip is opposite the notch in the block. I then rotated the motor and it turned over fine and didnt hit. I dont know if that is acceptable or not. But lets say when the crank gear makes one full turn back to where it was, the hole in the cam is directly opposite of where it should be if your using the mark on the exhaust cam journal. It seems to be going thru the 4 stroke cycle like normal. But this is something I jus toyed with and didnt know if it would work. And yes there are 5 links between the cams. Counted like 3 times this time.

But something I didnt mention before is when I was trying to torque down the crank pulley after the 1.8 cam swap I had my buddy use a wrench on the exhaust side so he could hold the motor in place while i was torqueing it. Well he decided to get lazy and jus let the wrench lay against the the flat part on the head where the valve cover goes so it wouldnt move and then I jus continued to torque cuz the wrench wasnt moving. AFter that is when the problems started. Nothing seemed to move so I dont know if that affected anything or not. Jus thought I would throw that in there. Sorry for the long message. Thanks for all your help tho. Hopefully I fingered out this problem.

 

Your post is making my brain hurt. To sum this up your having the same issue even with the other camshaft? You're not too far away, if you need help I would be willing to drive out and help you.

 

Yep still having the same issue with the 2.0 cam. The intake cam that I swapped in came from a 1.8 head so I know its the 1.8 one. ( I know the heads on the 1.8 and 2.0 are identical) But the only thing I did was rotated the actual crank gear 180 degrees and left the cams at tdc and now it spins freely. If you wanna drive in and help that would be great if I cant figure it out. I could pitch in gas money too.

 

Pics pics pics pics!

I'm guessing, by "cams at tdc" you mean



and



Right?

But you are saying with the crank in this orientation:



It does hit? And when the belt is loosened, the crank is rotated 180º and the belt is re-tightened, with the cams still as above, it does not hit? That's bass ackwards mang.

 

Yep thats what Im saying. I know its weird right? My cams, the line is pretty much dead center through the cam gear. Didnt know if that would affect nething or not?

 

idk about this week but when i get some free time i will come out and look at it if you want.

p.s. i sure hope you haven't forced it when you hit the valves this would be a not so good idea.
BUT i assume you didn't.


Zen master says:
When you cant seem to find Waldo, try looking for Frank, only will find Waldo.

As in "wheres Waldo" just in case anyone was confused.

 

"My cams, the line is pretty much dead center through the cam gear" means what, exactly? I know it probably makes sense in person, but we aren't there. Explain it like you're talking to a bunch of n00bs