Ok, just got done changing my timing belt, along with swapping out some pulleys and changing the oil. i am pretty sure the timing belt was done correctly. cam gear at the proper mark, along with the crank sprocket aligned correctly. turned the engine over by turning the big ass bolt in the crank sprocket a few times and it spun over easily, with no metal to metal contact noise. everything tension wise is nice and tight, but not too tight. about 5-10mm of play in everything, which is what the service manual suggested.

turned the car on very cautiously, and it started right up and idled away. i have a louder than hell valve tap happening now though. the car has idled for a good 5 minutes straight, so i dont think its a problem with oil taking a while to get to the head, and it does have plenty of oil in it.

i did accidently have the engine spin over in the opposite direction once while trying to align things by hand. should i be worried about that? i swapped out the stock cam sprocket for an obx one, so i can adjust it slightly, i just would be making blind changes though.

AND TO ADD-

just went outside and took off the upper timing belt cover. saw that the cam gear had un-adjusted itself a couple degrees...guess the little allen bolts on it werent tight enough. so i loosened the allen bolts to try and spin it back to the zero mark on the little adjustment gauge, but it would only spin one way which also turns out to be the way that is opposite the zero degree mark. now i cant get it back, and im afraid that if i tighten it all up and try to start it, it will be off by such a degree that something could hit inside the engine, and i dont want that at all.

any thoughts? im thinking i should try loosening the big bolt that holds the cam sprocket in, but shouldnt the teeth move independantly from the middle of the sprocket? isnt that the whole point of an adjustable sprocket?

 

well the adj cam gear wont make your valves any louder. i have had mine -12 to +12 to the extremes and no noise. if you are gonna adjust it back to normal just loosen the allen heads and put a wrench on the big nut and turn anyway u want it should be free but you gotta use some muscle.

im guessing this is your first timing belt and well maybe you did not get the timing marks correct. i want you to align your timing to the way it should be and check again. align the marks on the cam to the top of the head then look at your mark on the pulley and marks on the plastic timing belt cover and see where it is? the line should be on btdc(i think thats whats there) and not 10 degrees like most people set it too. remember that you dont align it to 10 because your #1 piston is at 10 while runing and thats what your timing light will check.

im not positive that you did this wrong but you never know..........

if this is not the problem there can be 1 more thing that can be your problem.

 

SHOULDA HAVE TOOK MY ADVICE IN MY TIMING BELT THREAD AND USED LEVELS ON THE TIMING CHAIN GEARS AND CAM GEARS TO MARK THEIR LOCATIONS, (sorry not type yelling...) before removing the timing belt.

Saves you the trouble of even HAVING to look at the marks..
Although, if one does have to it's not like you can get it wrong...
It's you either you see the marks or you don't. Once you see them it's pretty commen sense to line them up....
There's only one way...

 

haha, turned out it just took a really long time to get the oil to the head. i actually went driving up and down the street and most of the tapping is now gone. i remember it usually taking a while for the tapping to go away after an oil change, i just think i freiked out a little bit more this time because i messed with something that could destroy my engine.

and patreezy, i read through your thread like 5 times while doing this. wink1.gif

i think im all good.

 

Whenever you change your oil you should fill your filter almost all the way up with oil before you install it. That way, your pump doesn't try to suck in air and have to fill the filter up before circulating oil throughout the engine. I would think that doing this would reduce the knocking time of your engine upon initial startup after an oil change. fing02.gif