Say you just rebuilt the motor, or had the cams out or whatever. How would you redo the timing from scratch? Just align the dots and the arrows as well?

You alignt the marks on the cam gears, and align the arrows on the crankshaft to the block. But you have to it a tooth behind on the crankshaft to block because the timing will be off as the belt tensions. To check it, turn the crank two full turns and make sure all the marks align, if not, take off the belt and try again.

Edit: I'm confused, didnt you do a timing belt write up?

Yes, but I'm thinking I have an issue with the timing (low compression). I pulled it back apart and everything looks right (dead on, cam marks and crank mark is all right), but I'm wondering if it's somehow 180 degrees out of phase or something along those lines (although I have no clue how it would have gotten there, since I drove 6k miles or so afer the belt change before I started having issues). So I was wondering how you end up setting up the timing if you had pulled everything apart and had no reference when re-assembling.

not sure why you got no compression and things start going to crap after 6k miles.

edit: to check timing, i believe your #1 cyl should be at TDC when your marks are aligned...if your on time. to do this you can remove the spark plug and put a dowel (something long..you want this back) to test if its at TDC. when it is and your crank mark is aligned..then align your cams and you should be good.

If your idle isn't lumpy/stumbly then it's a fairly good bet your timing isn't off.

Did your adjustable cam gears un-adjust?

Look for other sources of low compression, like bad rings, bad valves, or a bad compression tester.

What's your vacuum at idle in inches mercury?

Originally posted by thedawg
Look for other sources of low compression, like bad rings, bad valves, or a bad compression tester. What's your vacuum at idle in inches mercury?

yea, i'd hook up the compression gauge to a air compressor and test it. set the compressor at 100psi and see what the gauge reads imo.

leakdown test is def. in order imo.

vacume should be around 15 in/hg at idle i believe

Car doesn't run, so I can't get you any of that information. Doesn't have adjustable cam gears either. I'm just lost trying to figure out why it won't start anymore. Has spark and gas, ECU appears to be fine, and no CELs. For the hell of it I decided to do a compression test and got 50 50 25 50. The car didn't use or burn oil, nor does it leak anywhere. Several people have told me to check the timing, which makes sense, but I pulled the whole side of the motor back apart and the timing looked to be dead on to what it should be. So I figure maybe something happened (although I'm sure I would have heard it) and the timing is somehow off.

Guess I'm tearing the side of the motor back apart to see where cylinder #1 is when the crank is lined up to see if it somehow became 180 of out phase (which I don't think could happen unless it ate a bunch of valves, but again, I didn't hear or notice anything. It was a gradual change in behavior and one day it just wouldn't start).

you mihgt not have sompression because of the valves being fuckered.

thats why you need to do a LEAKDOWN TEST

http://www.xs11.com/tips/misc/misc3.shtml

A few things to be aware of-

NEVER rotate the crank without the timing belt installed and properly timed. We have an interferance engine, which means the pistons and valves occupy the same space, but not at the same time if timed correctly. As a safe rule, I always keep the crank timing arrow at around the 9 oclock position, which keeps the pistons near the middle of the cylindrs. This way, you can rotate the cams to your hearts content, and not do any valve damage. I ALWAYS DO THIS, and set your timing marks on your CAMS FIRST, then take the crank from 9 oclock and put it to 12 to line up the timing arrows, then install the timing belt following the correct procedure.