OK question 1. When looking at the engine from the front of the car, which is the proper way for the crank to turn clockwise or counterclockwise?

Problem 2.

This just dawned on me when I was lining up the dots and putting the chain back on. With the rockers and rods off, I have no idea if I am TDC on compression or exhaust stroke. Is there a way for me to tell?

Now this is not a knock on LS1howto because its tutorial has been priceless in assistance to me. My question is, to ensure I don't fire my car 180 degrees off, can anyone find any harm in doing the spring swap and put the rockers and pushrods back in before I put the front of the engine back together in case I am 180 degrees off? This way here I can spin the crank and hopefully tell if I am 180 degrees off or not?

 

The dot to dot method i'm pretty sure lines up exactly where you want it. The compression and exhaust stroke are determined by valve events which are set forth by the cam so i doubt you could get them off. compression and exhaust stroke are only a concern when considering firing order.

 

Ya know that makes perfect sence. Ya sometimes get so involved with trying to think your way out of things, you over look the obvious. Thanks!!!!

So If I understand right, the crank makes 2 rotations for every one of the cam gear giving your 4 strokes

 

BTW, just a common sense observation and the way I have always done it is turning motor over clockwise based on using the crankbolt to turn the crank. Counter-intuitive to turn counter clockwise since you would likely just to break the crank bolt loose.

 

Yes, hence the reason the cam gear is twice the size of the crank gear. And the motor turns the same was as every other motor asside from Hondas and to this day i STILL cannot remember which way that is. I turned mine over both ways. I'm sure it wasnt good for it but removing and installing the crank bolt pulley bolt doesnt leave you many options.

Did you put threadlocker on your cam retainer, and camshaft bolts? I forgot to an it's really important apparently haha.