Re: 3 dumb questions

[Luis Marques <marques@ti.com>]

> 1:  I am trying to set the timing belt on my mc engine and there seems
> to be some disparity on what is tdc.  The bentley says to line up the
> cam sprocket  mark up with the top of the valve cover gasket on the
> right side as you face it.  That takes the head to tdc but when it
> says to line up the mark on the  harmonic balancer to the protrusion
> on the oil pump for block tdc it does not put a piston up.  BTW I do
> not have a flywheel yet.  Can I just use the #1 piston at the top of
> its travel?  How do I make sure that both are accurate once these are
> set?  I know that 1 tooth can make a difference in performance so I
> want to be sure they are set accurately.

I did the timing belt on my car about 2 years ago and was also counting
on Mr. Bentley's advice to bring the engine to TDC.  Well, surprise,
surprise to me when I realized that the harmonic balancer mark does NOT
line up to TDC.  To be sure, I put a screwdriver down the #1 cylinder
spark plug hole to see when the piston was up and looked inside the oil
filler hole to make sure the cam lobes were pointing up and looked at
the flywheel mark just to be sure, but the harmonic balancer is
completely useless when trying to find TDC.  You can get it very close
just by judging when the piston is at its upmost position, but to be
100% sure, you may have to install a flywheel and look thru the bell
housing hole.  hth

Luis Marques
'87 4kcsq