Makes me want to absolutley ******* shoot myself in the forehead. Of all things, didn't drop the pickup tube bolt, cam went in AWESOME, lifters stayed up perfect, etc. Me and my friend had it too, then I realized I forgot to put the cam retainer plate on like a damned moron. So off comes the gear, retainer plate on, and now this... it's almost like the chain is too short. Never seems like it's on the crank, and the gear is lower than the cam by a C-hair. Any hints? I'm done for the night, there are all sorts of bugs flying around just begging to land in my oil pan, but were instead greeted with complete destruction. So I threw the timing cover back on and called it a day.

-J

 

Hey better than getting it all back together and then finding out! I did valve stem seals 3 months ago, and it was so late and i was so tired putting it back together I forgot a rocker pedestal. I got a new stroker out of the deal

 

1. Place the upper sprocket inside the chain.
2. Slide the chain around the crank sprocket.
3. Push the upper sprocket towards the cam and move the chain until the dots are close to lined up.
4. Turn the cam till the dowel lines up with the dowel hole in the sprocket.
5. Slide the sprocket on the dowel an dplace one bolt in.
6. See how close you are to "dot to dot".
7. Repeat till your lined up.
Some of the chains are tighter, but they will go.

 

Beast, AWESOME CALL. Tell me, does this look close enough for "dot to dot"? When I finally got it all on, it looked ONE TOOTH off. Then I rotated the crankshaft counter clockwise, and with barely any movement, they are dead on. Your thoughts? It's hard to see the crank sprocket hole, but it's on the tooth thats 99.9% directly BELOW the cam gear "dot" EDIT: Turns out the chain was never seating QUITE RIGHT on the crank gear. Now it seems to have more than enough room

 

You've got it. Another way is to move the crank until the dots ARE aligned and then see if they are vertical to both crank and cam centers. To be a whole tooth off would make the alignment very obvious because a vertical line from dot to dot would put the line so off center that you can't miss that it's not right.

Take your picture and blow it up with Microsoft's accessory > accessibility > magnifier. I did this with a 3 X magnification. You will see that the smallest rotation will move the dots significantly.

 

Looks just right to me. Nice set of instructions there Beast.

 

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Looks like you got it.

 

That looks one tooth off to me. I would do it again, untill it was right. Try to use the water pump botls to get it lined up then take them out and put in the right ones.

 

It's hard to tell from the angle of the picture. Only he can make the final call. If the dots are at 12 and 6 oclock, then your fine. However, if they are off a touch, it's not right. A tooth off is usaully noticable and you should be able to establish it from straight up when standing in front of it.

 

In person it looked as straight as my eyes could tell. I looked at it for almost 15 minutes before putting the rest of the cam gear bolts in. From the top, from sitting where the radiator is looking at it straight on. I am just finishing up the rocker re-install right now, then buttoning the rest of it up, then off to wal mart to get some coolant, say a few prayers, then fire it up. thanks for your guidance. -J

 

Don't just fire it up. Crank it over with a wrench on the crank bolt first a few times to make sure nothing is wrong. Then disconect the coil packs and bump it over a few times with the starter and listen for any unusual sounds. reconect the coil packs and turn the key to on for the fuel pump to come on. then start it up. check the oil pressure & sound if anything is not right shut it down.

 

The only problem I see with the instructions is if you put the chain on cam sprocket in step 1 you better be right. If not you've got a problem. It's damn hard to remove the cam sprocket from the chain(not to mention frustrating) once you have the chain/sprocket in position to slide onto the cam boss. Also in step 3 there really isn't any slack to move the chain to get the dots to line up. You're either 100% right or 1 thooth off at that point. If the oil pump is removed as is the case in this tutorial it's much easier to see the crank DOT be he didn't remove the oil pump during this install based on the picture which shows the pump in place while he's attempting to get the cam sprocket in place. I don't turn the crank after setting it to DOT to DOT in order to remove the old cam. I like to get the new cam dowel into the proper position first by putting the sprocket on the cam boss and turing the cam sprocket DOT to 6 o'clock. Then the chain goes on the crank sprock(crank has not been rotated DOT is still at 12 o'clock). You lift the chain up in close proximity to the cam sprocket(cam sprocket is still sitting on the cam boss). It helps to have an assistant at this point, but it's not absolutely necessary. You lift the sprocket off of the cam boss and lower it just far enough to get the theeth inside the chain links. Now you just put the sprocket back in place. A lot of elbow grease and a few curse words help on this step. I'm confused by your statement when you say you "didn't drop the pickup tube bolt"? What does that have to do with getting the cam sprocket on the cam boss?

 

You can walk the chain around the gear if it is one tooth off. I usually get it on the crank sproket and have it vertical then put the cam sprocket on and check alignment, if it isnt right then i just lower the sprocket a little and walk the chain on the gear one tooth or whatever it needs.

 

Absolutely nothing I just stated that the one part of the install that practically everyone made a note of saying, "be prepared for this you'll pull your hair out", turned out to be not bad, and the part nobody makes a note of, putting the cam gear on, ended up being a total bear. And yes, several curse words, many thrown tools, and lots of elbow grease helped All is well, car started great, I did a few turns of the crankshaft by hand to check for contact as well as to make sure everything was operating as expected. I triple checked everything (well, ALMOST everything... RE: oil pan bolts ).

-J

 

I had an oil pan bolt back out after a few months. Check them when you do an oil change.

 

yea just takes a little strength!