make it so its perfectly in time at the crank. just because it was wrong before doesn't mean you want to make that same mistake! the car will drive way nicer after you're finished after you retune it. im sure the tune is mangled to compensate for the engine being out of time right now.

 

i also use the jay racing cam gear tool and it is nice. when the tool is installed and you place the timing belt across the cam gears you will see there is belt slop between the two gears. it is actually providing a slight retard on the exhaust cam(see your pic below), which will make your lower timing marks appear slightly off. you want them to be slightly off as in the picture where the gears are not quite to the mark as opposed to just past the mark. once you get to this point with the timing belt installed, remove the jay racing tool and with your 1/2" drive on the crank give it a slight nudge clockwise and it will remove the belt slop between the cam gears and everything will align. pm me if you need to chat.

 

you really need to inspect the balance shaft tensioner bearing(blue in the pic below) for wear. when i removed mine at ~65k the bearing was starting to go out and was very loose.

made this using a piece of bar from Lowes.

 

you're probably right haha

ok, so I guess the main thing is to displace them a little bit so when the tension is put on everything lines up 100%. It will just take some trial and error I guess. Do you know about how much the offset will be on the crank and oil sprocket? Is it a full tooth like the manual says? Or does anyone have a count of the number of teeth between the cam gears and oil sprocket?

that's a good idea, I'll try that with some metal from work. And I've got the full timing belt kit from mitsu

 

if i remember correctly everything will look about 1/2 a tooth short of hitting the mark. take a picture and post.

 

Also you old belt could have stretched a small amount. Use an EVO9 belt or a Kevlar belt from another manufacturer and it will not stretch. Rotate the engine 6 times and all marks should line up again.

 

I have an Evo9 so it should have had a kevlar belt (it's a hard belt) and the replacement is a gates kevlar racing belt.

I'll post pictures later today.


Another question: in regards to the balance shaft belt - since the crank is not TDC when the balance shaft is, when I'm changing the balance shaft belt do I need to get those both at perfect TDC? Looking at the piston travel, both TDC and where the car was at are at the very top of the piston travel (it does not go up or down when I rotate the crank between TDC and where it was before). I know they use this on older distributor engines because the spark needs to come in a milli-second before the piston hits the very top of the stroke. This doesn't apply to our cars because everything is ECU controlled and the tuner can make the spark come in whenever he chooses, correct?

 

the balance shaft sprocket connected to the balance shaft belt also has to align on the mark. however, it does not have to be phased in like the front balance shaft.

 

edit: I decided to hook back up the battery and bump the starter to get the crank nut off since I couldn't find another way. Worked like a charm, I should have just done this from the start. Having to put the old timing belt back on gave me good practice for the real thing - I was able to get it on very easily and get the car to TDC and it stayed there after about 10 turns of the crank...


I got everything off and almost the whole kit installed. I got the balancer belt on and tensioned to spec (roughly 1/4" of play in the top and both are on TDC), I got the trigger plate and sprocket on along with the cam sensor, got the engine side motor mount on with the idler pulley and the power steering back on the engine and all torqued down. Got the water pump bolted on with the gasket and lubed up the water tube side o ring so it slid on real nice. I decided to call it a night but all that's left is to get the timing belt on and the tension pulley on and I'm good to go.

 

Shouldnt be a problem. You just barely need to turn the key just to "bump" the starter. I have done timing on multiple toyotas and this is a must to get the crank bolt off lol. It doenst take much.

 

I made a similar piece except that it extends to the left and bolts to that vacant hole left by the removal of the accessory belt tensioner. I mentioned this the other day here and the response I got was that you don't need to remove the crank bolt. This I need to take a look at to see if it is true.

 

nice tool

 

I made a similar tool, but with the crappy tools I have at home (didn't feel like driving to work) I couldn't get the hole smooth enough to make it sit flush on the sprocket, so when I went to lift up on this thing to break it loose, I just bent the bolts from the crank pulley... so I'll be needing 2 more bolts for re-install and I wasted $17 at home depot on a piece of angle iron I won't ever use

I recommend the starter bump even though it's ghetto

 

theres no need to remove the pulley to do the balance belt , take the bolt out of the crank sensor move it to oneside ,take off the b/belt tensioner , take the belt off the b shaft pulley turn the crank ,remove the belt .

refit in the reverse order

 

I would rather do it the right way, but thanks