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Hey everyone!
I will explain this as best as possible.. I have a 99 SS that I bought two years ago. The original owner did some bottom end work to the stock LS1 with a new racenet 383 crank, forged pistons, and connecting rods. After I purchased the car I found that the head gaskets were bad/not functioning properly. I ended up deciding to do a head and cam swap to get the whole motor up to a higher performance level. Today I pulled the old cam and installed the new one. Before I pulled the old cam I made sure that the cam sprocket was in the 6 o’clock pos to align the cam and crank. I noticed the dot on the crank was at the 1 o’clock pos while the cam sprocket was at the 6 o’clock pos.. the #1 and #6 pistons are at TDC. I spun the crank multiple times to verify the two dots lining up for both cycles of the # 1&6 pistons at TDC and the dot on the crank does not line up at 6 or 12 o’clock when at TDC. Does this mean that the crank is advanced or was this an installation issue created by whoever put the motor together?
i realize the cam sprocket dot is slightly off the 6 o’clock pos, I was messing with it and ended up passing it when I tried to spin it back again and I didn’t do the full line up but you can still see how far off the crank dot is from the cam . Anyone have any advice or info that can help me figure this out? Thanks!
It ran fine.. I was messing with it a little bit today to get it lined up but no dice. Also, don’t be fooled.. there is a dot on the oil pump which lines up but the dot on the crank itself doesn’t.. it’s hard to see in the picture but if you look closely you’ll see it.
Okay but that has nothing to do with engine timing. Likely more to do with indexing the pump rotor with the outer housing, as you have circled. These dots and the ones on the cam sprockets are totally unrelated as far as engine timing goes.
You line up the cam sprockets while the oil pump is OFF THE ENGINE.
I understand the oil pump Mark is not part of the timing but the fact that the crank mark is not at the 12 o’clock position when the #1&6 pistons are at TDC is not making any sense. The oil pump on or off shouldn’t cause the mark on the crank to be sitting at the 1 o’clock position while the pistons are at TDC.. thats what is confusing. If the oil pump is causing the mark to be off please explain the reason why?
Pop the pump off so you can be SURE you are seeing the correct dot on the timing sprocket on the crank. Not sure that the inner dot in the photo is the right one. If it is, put it at 12:00 instead of at 1:00 or whatever it is now, and see if the cam sprocket dot lines up with it. If so you're at #6 firing as well as at the other instance of #1 TDC that's NOT #1 firing.
It's basically impossible for the crank sprocket to fail to line up with #1 & #6 TDC, unless the crank is made wrong. The cam sprocket of course is a different matter.
Could an adjustable timing set look that way when installed? Looks to me like if the cam sprocket was a tooth to the left everything would line up.
From what Ive read if you are a tooth off the engine will still run just not as good as it can, maybe this is why you feel it needed more power? Someone correct me if I am way off here. Youll experience problems but it will run and with a small cam wont damage anything. Its something like 2 to 8 degrees a tooth.
There should be another dot on the gear behind the oil pump.
hahahaha, DOH. Hes exactly right. Sad part is I just did a cam a few weeks ago, guess its the angle of the picture. But yes the gear behind the oil pump has a dot on it as well, Use a flashlight.
To really time it right, the oil pump MUST be removed, as I mentioned above. You really can't even see the crank sprocket well enough until you do that.
Looks like an adjustable timing set, and they have the cam timing retarded.
Was it soft down low and strong up top?
You'll need to pull the pump and the pump drive sprocket to see the numbers on the adjustable sprocket for the chain.
Then set the timing gear on the 0 degree setting then go at it again. Set on 0 if you want your new cam straight up (not adv or ret).
Also, you're using the wrong dot, the dot you're looking for on a standard crank gear is on the gear tooth. Not out on the front of the snout of the gear.
Look at the gear/teeth with a flashlight behind the oil pump and you may be able to tell what's going on without pulling the pump. If it's not adjustable then just pop the cam sprocket off and re time it once you find the dot. If it's adjustable pull the pump and set it on 0
Last edited by 00pooterSS; Nov 16, 2018 at 05:11 PM.
Timing issue 
