Sr20 timing problem and cam scarring

[ViorelP]

Hello everyone. I recently swap a sr20det engine in my s13. The swap was made by a mechanic who never worked on a sr20det before. He worked only on ca18.He said the timing is ok, he didnt check with a timing light, but for me, it wasnt confident. Anyway, after the swap the engine had some noises, and after 5 min he snapped the rocker arm from the exhaust cam on #1 cylinder. After this, all the work was done by a second person, which is the one who gave me the engine. All good. I start the car, and was running very weird. In the low rpm, was pretty ok, but after 3k the engine wont pass. I started checking myself all the things. I checked the tps, the cas, the iacv, etc...and i think my timing was not installed corectly. I took the valve cover off, and made some pictures. I count 19 dots between the cams, and the lob from the intake cam is not horizontally. Something is wrong. Please, tell me what you think? I checked the tdc with a long screwdriver, but i am not 100% sure that the previous owner put the tdc on the 2nd notch from the pulley and not on the first. Also, after checking the cams, i found some scarring on the exhaust cam lob from the first cylinder. How bad is this? Thank you all.

[zombiewolf513]

Looks like your timing is off by a single link pin. The scarring on the cam lobe where it is may wear down the surfaces on the rocker arms without any corrective action.

[ViorelP]

What is off? The exhaust cam? Looks like it must be rotate 1 tooth clockwise.

[Tyler_240]

Both #1 Cam lobes should be < > when TDC

It is hard to tell, but it looks like your exhaust cam is off like the previous person suggested. you should be able to unbolt the cam, dip it forward towards the front cover, rotate it and correct the problem as long as your verify TDC and you rotate it by hand afterwards.

Zip tie your chain to intake cam before moving anything. And be careful when you torque your cam back down.

I obtained a motor a while back and it was off by 2 Teeth, or 1 whole link and I had to rotate both cams.

[TheRealSy90]

20 chain pins between the gear dots is the proper amount.


Edit- Supposed to be 20 pins between the dots. Been a while.

[ViorelP]

Wait. I thought 20 chain pins must be between the gear dots, not 19 or 21. In every picture i found on internet with sr20det timing, there are 20 chain pins.

[cotbu]

NO! its 11 links dot to dot
11 links x 2pins - 2pins =?
anyway your mechanical timing is wrong, i guess it jumped :cool:

[TheRealSy90]

Wait. I thought 20 chain pins must be between the gear dots, not 19 or 21. In every picture i found on internet with sr20det timing, there are 20 chain pins.

Haha wow you're right, I had a brain fart. It IS supposed to be 20 pins...

[ViorelP]

Ok. I never done this, and i hope everything will work well. I will do it on saturday, until then i will research. Any advice/tip will be very helpfull

[Tyler_240]

http://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=621971

Here was my old thread about a similar issue

[ViorelP]

Thanks. I'll take a look.

[ViorelP]

Help. I'm confused. I didn't understand how exactly should i rotate the exhaust cam 1 tooth clockwise.
So, bring the engine at TDC. Then what? Fix the intake cam sprocket with zip tie, and then lose the exhaust cam sprocket? Or how? without losing the timing on the crank and the intake sprocket? I did not find any tip on how to rotate the exhaust cam 1 tooth. Only how to remove/install with the both sprockets locked with zip tie. I need to rotate one...So?

[cotbu]

Tdc, zip tie the intake cam sprocket to chain, remove cas, if need be remove tensioner, unbolt the exhaust cam and rotate.
Installation is reverse
Get a timing light set engine into timing mode set base idle and timing which is 15°