Timing belt install.

First and foremost, thanks to all that have helped me out so far. I've put in my new water pump and the coolant system is working just fine - even saw the fan come on for the first time.
My concern is that I may have the timing belt installed a tooth off. Meaning the cam is a little advanced. I noticed the cam sprocket moved a tad when I was struggling to get the new belt on, so I spent some time convincing myself that the horizontal lines stamped into the cam sprocket were lined up with the head's face for the valve cover. has anyone ever installed one advanced a tooth? This is on my '85 Civiv, 1.5L carby motor. It seems to have developed a little ping I noticed during my test drive. Idle wise it seems to be a little rough, but nothing terrible - just seems rougher than before. No dieseling, and it only pings if I'm really hard on the gas. I'd hate to tear into this thing only to realize that I ended up knocking a vacuum hose loose or nudging the dizzy a tad....would I notice a difference running a new water pump and belt?- meaning, is it normal to have to break it in?

probably more than one tooth out,could send you diagrams on removal and fitting if required,shows relevant timing marks, and how to set up timing correctly.click my email addy.

Thank you for your reply, mechy1barry. It was one tooth off. I somehow managed to take the belt off without having to take the lower cover off back the cam up a tooth and reinstall the belt. Like a dope I forgot to disconnect the vacuum advance to the dizzy the first time I timed it, but I got it right the second time. Henry the Honda runs like a top again. Incedently, advancing the cam gave me great mid to top end, but terrible low end torque. In retrospect, it may have run pretty good with cam advanced and the ignition retarded a tad.

i was woundering if someone can help me with my timing ive installed a new belt and it seems like it wants to start up but doesnt it also sounds like my heads are not moving at the same time can someone please help if anybody has any pics on how it goes please email me with them please thanks

is the belt off by a tooth? does it turn over by hand

if you send me an email with the year/engine size/single or twin cam,will send you diagrams
of install with all relevant info.

i was able to turn it by hand and when i tried the second time it was pretty hard...what can it be

if your off by a tooth or two it will have trouble running. how did the timing belt go? or were you just replacing it as a precaution, if it did go while you were running you may have some bent valves which would defiantly give you trouble starting.

i was barely going to hit 15 miles per hr and it started to to hisitate and i turned it off ....and pushed it to the parking lot could they still be bent or is it just the belt please respond

well it sounds as though you may have gotten lucky on the bent valves. did you do anything to the electrical in the process, mess with the distributor or spark plug wires? i'm still thinking that you may have miss aligned the belt by a couple teeth. did you set everything to TDC when you put the belt back on?

well im just barely putting things back on what is tdc can you email me a pic or something please respond

The cam sprocket has a a line stamped across the face of it. You need to get the lines level with the surface of the valve cover interface with the head. You can use the dizzy rotor to tell if your 180* out or not. I found that using an inspection mirror worked best to "eye" the alignment of the stamped marks with the head's valve cover surface. The first time I installed the belt I ended up a tooth off because I tried to "eye" it from the driver side fender and it was just to damn lousy of a vantage point. Hope this helps.

tdc means top dead center, so your no. 1 piston has to be at the top of it's stroke which is easy to tell with the head off, with it on you have to put a piece of wire down the spark plug hole and rotate it till you feel the tdc point. then set the timing belt pulley to the alignment marks like tetraruby300 said, there are little arrows marked on the side of the head, i had to climb up on top of the motor and stick my head down to read it properly with the head on the motor.

hey has any body get a message from some ferrari dude....?something about a grand prix cup and 2,000,000$ prize.....i dont know what the hell there thinking but my crap @$$ car aint gona show up!!1

everyone got it i think

I never got one. :P :D

doese any one know how to give the head lights an extra kick??? mines suck!! i bought blue zenon light bulbs (9004) it glows an awsome blue shine but at night you can barely see any thing!! if it wasint for my amber fog lights id be dead.... please help...(the inepenseve,chep,poormans way...) or what ever way...... thanks in advance!!! :)

ummmmm.....some body please....helpme.......

There is someting you can buy and put in the headlights to let them soak (Some sort of soap). It's supposed to make them clearer.

when installing a timing belt and doing a valve job after everything is lined up and i start the car is the engine going to smoke a little or is there something wrong (not from the tail pipe) please respond

The engine might smoke a little initially, as in, right after the install... But if it keeps smoking time and time again, then there would be a problem.

well to be honest the reason it did smoke the first time is cause its gasket from the valve cover had bent causeing oil to leak that why it was smoking i fixed it and tightened it and before i left the shop it only smoked a little bit ....also if it started do i still need to put the timing gun on it ...this is my first import car and i do all my car work im surprised it came out right i busted my head (brain )trying to do this it saved me a lot of money $$$....please let me know something this was also my first timing job thanks every one for the info givin to me please let me know about the gun issue

make them clearer???? dude thanks,but i need them to light better....its not ground or a relay or fuse...its all just fine.i just need an extra kick...(so that i can see further foward and see if any thing or any one trys to cross the road at 2 am...

Clearer, as in the lenses would be clearer AND cleaner AND would allow more light to pass through them.... How about a HID system?? Or get some really kicking driving lights. :D

hey now that you say that.....how much does that system cost......(under 100 i hope......:()

I couldn't tell you off of the top of my head. You could find some sites that sell HID lighting...

Try some Sylvania Silver Star HIDs. I heard on RPR that they are much brighter than stock.

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/HighPerformance/Silverstar/

http://www.shoppalstores.com/kustomkar/index.cfm/fa/categories.main/parentcat/1816

thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!