OH CRAP! top end help please! sr20.

[mattro]

first ill need somone who has actually done a cam/head gasket on a sr20.
if thats not you hit the little "back" on your browser. sorry to be a dick about it but i dont want any "well my sisters boyfriends cousins mom did it once" shit.

now for my question.
just got done swapping in a nice new shiney 1.01 com. head gasket.

tq'd everything like im supposed to.

now moving on to putting the cams back in. and my exhaust cam does not sit flat in what "according to the fsm" is TDC. now is this normal and should i just tq it down? or did i f*k up somwhere?

[godsmack]

it's not going to set in there perfect. just make sure you torque it in there right according to torque specs. if you do it the right way it takes like 45min. just to get 'em in.

[V8slayr]

If you are talking about the camshaft not lying down flat into the cam journals "my sister's boyfriend's grandpa had the same issue" ha ha. No shit though, mine did the same thing. Just take your time and begin tightening the the cam caps down in sequence a couple of turns at a time. You want to apply pressure as evenly as possible to assist the cam to sit down into the journals. But again, take your time!!! Just turn each bolt in sequence until the cams sits flat and then torque the cam caps to spec.

Hope this helps

[fliprayzin240sx]

^^^to piggyback on that, follow the torquing sequence on the FSM, its not the reverse sequence of how you take it off. Putting it back on is a different sequence. Also, make sure you dont snap the cam off. Make sure the front of the cam is seated properly when you start torquing it. The round lip on the front of the cam have a tendency to catch and snap off while torquing down.

Lastly, did you check if your chain link marks are good to go? I've seen way to many SRs that the chain marks are way off so you have to count chain links to put the cams back on the right position.

[Homer_Simpson]

Make sure you get a torque wrench that go low enough, I'm talking about inch/pound here. Snapping those bastard bolts inside the head is not fun.

[mattro]

yea. i have a tq that will do that but im gunna have to get a pulley puller from harbor freight so i can actually count links. i cant get the damn crank pulley off. (grr face)

i also noticed when i spin the engine that the chain will pop over the sprockets (i prolly turned it the wrong way.) so now i gotta put it back in TDC and take the chain off completely. and count the links. now am i counting full links or rollers?