abraham's tt conversion with lots of questions

[Abraham]

hopefully i will be done in the next 2 weeks. but i will be posting pics as i go, here are some that i took today.

^crappy phone pic

^we were trying to see if it fit to make it rwd

do you like my shelf?

this is after almost everything is out. as you can see to the right bottom of the picture i took out all of the a/c system, and all the way to the right thereare the half shafts but the passanger's side decided to stay in and not come out so when i tried pulling on it only half of it came out

and another thing, make sure what size your axle nuts are because when i looked at my passenger's nut it was a 30mm so i went to the store and got the socket and other things that i needed. and when it came time to do my driver's side it was a 32mm. so yeah i just needed to vent a little


Ok first set of problems that i ran into. First of all when I pulled the engine out and took the timing comers off I moved the belt with my hand to see if it was tight and the left (front) bank jumped 2 teeth and the right (rear) bank jumped 3 teeth and both of them were the intake cams. So now that I'm trying to change my lifters I want to take the cams out so it can be easier. Is that the best way or not? And I was just about to go at it and then my friend and I noticed that the intake one on the rear side it has a timing device (I don't know what it is) and he told me that I had to mark that to keep everything in line. So what should I do first just take the cams and that sensor and just put it back together with the timing marks and the sensor where it was? Aside of them jumping teeth? And also about the vss how would it be the easiest to do them before I do my lifters or after is all together? and I do have a tool to compress the springs when the cams are in place.

I know I'm all over the place right now but I forgot something. How easy or hard would it be to reset timing if everything is out of wack and I just start putting thing together following the timing marks?

Another thing. Could something go wrong if I just take the timing belt off and let the springs move the cams since I'm already going to take them off?

[Mr.3000]

Hey man, glad to see another person going F.I. I was a little confused on your post.

1) Were you saying that while u were turning the timing belt that it jumped teeth or that it had already done some and you just noticed it while turning the belt?

2) Make sure that you are looking at the right timing marks. I thought my timing was off at first cuz I was looking in the wrong spots. I'm not saying you are but you just want to make sure before you start flippin out. If your timing belt has infact, jumped some teeth, you could be looking at some serious damage such as bent valves, so you want to be sure of what is going on.

If you are just trying to replace lifters, you can leave the cams in. Good luck on your journey and I am sure there will be plenty of people more knowledgeable than I am coming in to help you out.

[bstewart87]

Good luck. I plan on joining the fwdtt crew shortly...

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by Mr.3000

Hey man, glad to see another person going F.I. I was a little confused on your post.

1) Were you saying that while u were turning the timing belt that it jumped teeth or that it had already done some and you just noticed it while turning the belt?

ok, while i was trying to remove the axles the transmission was left in gear and the timing belt got loose because it was rotated backwards. and the belt jumped teeth because where the belt goes around the water pump i noticed that i was loose so when i moved it with my hand i was thinking nothing of it and the 2 intake cams jumped. and i did notice that the cams were in perfect timing before it jumped.

2) Make sure that you are looking at the right timing marks. I thought my timing was off at first cuz I was looking in the wrong spots. I'm not saying you are but you just want to make sure before you start flippin out. If your timing belt has infact, jumped some teeth, you could be looking at some serious damage such as bent valves, so you want to be sure of what is going on.

how could i tell if i have bent valves. compression test, etc...

If you are just trying to replace lifters, you can leave the cams in. Good luck on your journey and I am sure there will be plenty of people more knowledgeable than I am coming in to help you out.

i want to change the lifters and vss.

and could i be able to just remove the belt and let the cams spin freely without worrying about bent valves.

[Nireez]

You can not let the cams spin without the belt. DO NOT DO THAT!! Check it out man, the engine is out right. Your belt slipped a few teeth. Why not pull your heads off while the engine is out and have new valve seals and lifters installed, you can also see if that little slip did any damage. Thats what I would do anyways. It would suck to put everything back together and find out there was a bent valve in there that you could have fixed very easily while everything was already out of the car.

Edit* If you position your pistons so that none are at the top of the cylinder, I guess you could turn the cams without the belt but I would still do what I stated above.

[Abraham]

So there is no other way to check and see if any of the valves hit? without taking the heads off.

Does anyone think if I remove my cams and let all of the valves just go up so they wouldn't be close to the piston, it would just be easier to set timing back when everything is put back together right? And if I do that incase there is a vent valve it wouldn't seat right and the spring would be alittle more compressed than the other ones right? Or just seat lower right?

[Nireez]

You can do a quick leak down test in the head if you want but dude, just take them off and get them redone. Have the valve seals and lifters installed and just dish out the extra cash for the gaskets. It will be completely worth the hassle if there is any valve damage. Think what you would do if you got it all back together and you go to start it and you got valve damage. You would be cursing yourself for not doing it while the engine was out. If the belt is already off the car, there is no way to check timing. If you put the belt back on, it will show perfect on the marks.

To answer your question, you won't be able to tell by the valve springs if you have damage. You can pull your intake and exhaust manifolds off and peak in there but you can't tell too much because if there is damage it won't be much considering the car was not running when the cams slipped.

AGAIN, if that was mine or a HUGE majority of the people on here, I would pull the heads off, check the valves, shave the head, install new seals and 99 lifters and put them back on.

[3000GT-LA]

yea im doing my fwdtt in 2 weeks too hopes it gose well .....how long it takes to do it

[maTT]

do a leakdown test. if you take your heads off you will need to buy new head gaskets.

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by maTT

do a leakdown test. if you take your heads off you will need to buy new head gaskets.

I think that that's what I'm going to end up doing because I don't want to remove the heads and go thru all of that trouble if the I can just take the cams out and perform a leak down test and make sure that everything is ok.