Photo of timing marks on my 1800 engine

[MNspiderman]

Here are the timing marks. crank was set at zero with the big yellow timing cover installed, then i took it off. Its kind of hard to see but I marked the marks with a Red marker which didn't show up very well. The camshaft sprokets are aligned with the pointers pointing to the holes in the sprockets, the auxilary shaft is aligned at 34 degrees off of 90 degrees and the crank is aligned at zero. When all done: the crank and cam marks do NOT exactly align as perfectly as the book says they do. Thus backing up the reason to get adjustable cam gear sprockets.


In this photo, the crank is dead on perfect with top dead center and here is where the cam gears align in real time. Note the exhaust cam sprocket hole is forward of the timing mark pointer. alignment is forward of the true timing mark

[baltobernie]

When you say "In this photo, the crank is dead on perfect with top dead center", how was TDC determined? With the yellow cover? Have you tried removing the spark plugs, and turning the engine by hand with a dowel or dial indicator in #1 hole until it peaks?

[MNspiderman]

I actually found TDC with the dial indicator wheel with the engine dismantled. I marked the crank and front seal housing so I wouldn't lose it. I also set it up with my degree wheel so I knew where true crank dwell was for when I install my distributorless ignition. I also dial indicated the camshafts and they are marked on the back side. i also tried moving the cam sprockets to another tooth and/or the crank sprocket as well. This is just what mine comes out to be. No sheard pins or keyways, nothing. Motor runs fine like this. no problems at all except i have a dead cylinder. but thats irrelivant for the moment. I just thought I'd let people know that when they are done with the rebuild, Its ok if the timing marks aren't perfect even though they should be perfect. AKA adjustable timing cam sprockets are looking better and better. By the way If I crank the engine backwards so the cam timing marks are "centered" between the pointers meaning mabye 1/16 off of each pointer. Then the crank is aproximately 5 degrees off. Or where the 5 degree btdc mark is on the yellow timing cover. I can't imagine I am the only one that ever came across this issue.