This is probably a dumb question but I'm afraid I'm gonna put this head back on and my cams are gonna be one tooth off and i'm gonna end up doing this shit all over again.

In the manual when they talk about the cam timing marks do they mean the tiny little notch thats in the teeth on the cam sprockets? Also I read that the dowel on the intake side has to be down and the exaust side has to be straight up but when those little notches on the the teeth are lined up straight the dowels are not straight up and straight down.

If the little notches are the timing marks (and not just a chip in the cam gears) which has to be dead on the marks or the dowel pins?

sorry this is so long,

Dean.

Or does it even need to be more precise then just dowel pin up, dowel pin down?

The dowel pins is just so you don't get the cams wrong. The fine adjustments will be made when you line up the timing marks on the cam sprockets themselves.

-"Easy Mac"
05 Mazda RX-8 (RR8 #88)
99 Eclipse RS 398whp & 372lb-ft

Yes, the little notches in the cam gears are the timing marks.

Matt
1995 Eclipse GS
2.0L, S16g Turbo, 8 Injectors, 26psi

1998 Eclipse GSX
2.3L Stroker, AEM EMS Converted to Speed Density, FP3065 Turbo, 35psi , and so on...

do the valves have to be completly closed at TDC?

here check this out. i just did this last night. i just put my shit back together. i did my timing wrong the first time and had to redo it again. fortunatly my mom's friend's husband is a mitsu tech. guy. he came over and told me the best way to do it, so i'll try to pass on the knowledge...
1. get your cam gears on and lined up. to line up your cam gears right, get a ruler or something straight and hold it across the center of the bolts on both cam gears, adjust your timing marks so that the notches are in line with that ruler.
2. after you've lined up your cams, make sure you have your crank at TDC. TDC means Top Dead Center, which means that piston #1 (and #4) will be at the top of its compression stroke. if you're not sure if you've got the right cylinder at TDC then take out your spark plugs, stick a long thin rod down in the spark plug hole and compare the heigths of all cylinders, 1 and 4 move together and 2 and 3 move together. when i did this, 1 and 4 were about 3 inches higher than 2 and 3. that's the way it should be. ok, so, after all that checking to make sure you've got #1 at TDC you should be almost ready to put your belt on. before putting your belt on, move your crank back 1 tooth, that means you will turn your crank 1 tooth counterclock wise. (don't panic, stay with me). now, put your belt on in a clockwise fashion. start with the front cam (i always forget which is exhaust and which is intake), take it around the tensioner pulley, ( i think i'm forgetting one more thing that the belt goes around, no big deal though, you'll know where the belt goes, not hard.) down to the crank, back up around until you have it all the way on. now, your crank is still one tooth back at this point. get your 19mm socket and turn the crank 1 tooth clockwise to get it back to TDC. now by turning that 1 tooth back to TDC you should have taken up the slack in the belt. it's tons easier with two ppl.
3. ok so you're belt is on and everything is lined up. put the tensioner in, make sure you have pushed that pin down to where you can stick something through it or you're gonna have a difficult time. put the tensioner in. put some torque on it and push it up a good bit to put a descent amount of tension on the belt. tighten your bolts down on the tensioner. KEEP THE PIN IN THE TENSIONER! do not take the pin out yet. after your tensioner is locked down. turn the motor manually a few times to make sure all the timing marks line up. if all the marks line up like they should, then you can start your car. let it run for maybe 15 secs just make sure everything is right. if everything is working like it should and you are happy with everything, you can pull the pin out of the tensioner. there should only be a slight amount of resistance when you pull the pin out of the tensioner. if theres still alot on resistance on the pin, then either you really jammed that tensioner up there for your test run or you didn't push it up there enough. this is one of the dealer tricks/shortcuts that the guy taught me. it was much better than f'n with the torque wrench.
4. you should have your timing dead on, like a champ. i started my car up one more time after i pulled the pin just for some extra reassurance that my car was running right.

good luck partner, if someone would have posted this for me when i was doing mine, it would have gone tons faster. i hope this makes things faster for you. good luck man, you can do it!

Yep, thats the way to do it. The turning the crank sprocket trick is key. One thing tho, 1 & 4 are at tdc when the marks on the crank sprocket is aligned with the mark on the oil pump. No need to stick anything in the motor. But you should have your plugs out if your turning the crank...

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four nails four corners four riders and four horses