Aamir_bt The legend.. How to do timing on a 4XE1-W (DOHC) engine. well i decided to to a write up for DOHC timing since there was only the SOHC written up, and i had to do a timing belt on my stylus anyways, so here ya go. Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 6,777 Trader Ratings: (18) 1/4 Mi: 9.999 @ 73.80 Ok, this will be a full write up on changing everything, including timing belt, water pump, tensioner, idler pulley, and all seals (cam and crank oil seals). the reason i had to replace all this was because my water pump went bad causing the water pump pulley to ride cocked and caused my timing belt to shred up horribly and get metal flakes form the pump and belt hair everywhere, destroying my seals and idler/tensioner pullies. if you are not replacing a particular part then just skip those steps and proceed to the relevant data. First you will have to remove the power steering and alternator belts. they are simple to do. Now, remove the upper timing plastic cover. the upper timing cover itself, observe the locations of where the bolt holes for it are. here is a pic without the cover on:
now remove the motor mount, you will have to have a jack or something under the engine to support it up when you remove the motor mount, otherwise when you remove the 2 bolts then the engine will fall slightly wedging the mount against it, making it unremovable until the engine is jacked back up. then remove the 2 bolts circled, and then the center cross bolt that the arrow is pointing towards: after the mount it removed, you will have to remove the mount bracket. to do this simply removed the circled 14mm bolts, and there is one more you can't see in this pic where the arrow is pointing (4 bolts total): *working tip: after removing the motor mount, it helps tremendously with space and ease of access to jack up the engine as high as possible when working from the top, and letting it drop all the way down when working from the bottom. if all other 3 mounts are still attatched, nothing will get hurt or affected by moving the engine up or down. this will "point" the side of the engine up at you from above, or down towards you from below, making it easier to work on it.
after removing the bracket, you will have to remove the crank pulley. to do this, take a breaker bar or ratchet with a bar slid over the end of it, and a 17mm socket. then put it on the bolt of the crank, and lay the handle down on the ground in front of the crank pulley. get in the car, and just turn the key to hit the starter briefly, just enough to spin the engine a bit but not enough to start the car. after that the bolt should be cracked loose and you can easily remove it with your hand. then grab both side of the crank pulley, and kinda wobble it back and forth to slide it off the shaft. now remove the lower timing plastic cover. now, to remove the belt you can do a few things. one is simply cut it off. or you can remove one of the cam pullies by unbolting it, or you can loosen the tensioner. to loosen the tensioner, you will need a 12 point box end 10mm wrench, or a 10mm 12 point short socket and ratchet. the socket and ratchet is easier to use, and grips better. but a wrench would suffice aswell. then simply break loose the bolt in the middle of the tensioner, circled here in the picture:
after you have removed the belt, you will want to go ahead and remove all the pullies simply by unbolting them. you will need to find a way to lock the cam pullies in place before removal, this can be done by using a prybar strategically located, or with an air gun. remember, our engines are NON-interference, so it does not matter if the cams are rotated when the belt is off. then remove the water pump by removing all 5 bolts. the very bottom right bolt will require a wrench to take off and put on, because the p/s bracket is in the way, so a socket will not fit. after everything is off except for the crank timing pulley, then proceed to remove the crank timing pulley. now, in 99% of the time, this particular gear will not slide off with your hand. this is important, you absolutely CANNOT try and pry the timing gear off from behind, as i guarantee you it will break the backing flange of the pulley, and it is imperative that the backing flange does not get broken or chipped! otherwise it can chew up the new timing belt and cause failure very quickly once put back together. the proper way to remove the pulley is to use a puller. now if you are lucky, your pulley will already have holes drilled and tapped out on either side of the pulley, as shown in the circled areas of the following picture: i was lucky and they were already drilled and tapped for me. if yours does not have the holes already there, then simply drill and tap out holes in the same way that the above pulley has them. now hook up the puller, and then just pull if off. it should be easy at this point to remove, if you live in hell, i mean up north, then it may be rusted or some retarded crap like that and you might have to use a torch to loosen it so the puller can take it off. i dunno if anyone has had that problem before though:
now everything except the seals should be off. it is time to make sure the area gets cleaned before you remove the oil seals (this way nothing contaminates the oil passageways while cleaning). technically the water pump should also be on when cleaning it off because you don't want junk getting into the coolant passageways, but that's your choice depending on how much you care/ how careful you are. cleaning it off using brake cleaner:
ok, now that any mess is gone, remove the cam and crank seals. do this by taking a flathead screwdriver, and stick it in under the seal where the shaft is, and then prying out from behind as shown in the picture. it will pull that one side out and then you can easily pull it the rest of the way out with your hand once it's cocked. be careful not to mark up or scratch the shaft where the seal rides on, other wise it will leak even with the new seal. once you have removed the seals, install the new seals by pushing them slightly with your hand, and then carfully tap them in by using a 1/4" extension (or a similar rod type device) and a hammer, being careful to only hit along the very outside of the seal as to not bend the inner part causing it not to seal properly. then "walk" it in back and forth untill it is flush with the block/head surface. at that point make sure it is evenly pressed in all the way around and it is good to go. * working tip: if you have a large socket or stiff cylindrical device that will fit over the cam/crankshaft and butt up against the seal, then it works better to use that to knock in the seal as it presses the seal in with even pressure. again though, make sure it butts up against the outer part of the seal, and not just the inner part otherwise it will
bend the inner part in and cause problems. now it's time to start re-assembling stuff, here is all my new parts: to install the water pump, put a thin layer of silicone sealant on the water pump flange, then set the paper gasket on top of that, then put another thin layer of silicone sealant on top of that. this aids in the sealing of the pump and prevent leaks from happening sooner. the key is to use a thin layer though, just enough to cover the surface, not much more. some people will use that copper spray gasket dressing instead, and some people install the gasket dry. it's up to you but i have always used silicone on mine with nor problems: * working tip: when tightening down the water pump, tighten the bolts in the same order/pattern as a 5 lug wheel, essentially using a star patter to tighten it down. this aids in seating the water pump correctly and having it seal properly.
now, re-install the cam gears, being sure to tighten the middle bolt down to proper torque spec. by locking the cam gears again and then tightening the bolt down. after installing the gears, line them up by finding the timing mark on the outer ring face, it is a little indention as shown in the following picture. sometimes it will have some white paint on it. not only should these timing marks face each other, they should line up with the block/head mating surface to ensure they are in the correct location: after lining the cam pulley's up, you can lock them down by inserting a long 10mm bolt or metal shaft through the hole in the pulley, into the location hole in the head. i forgot to take a pic with the bolts in the pullies, but i circled the holes in question in the following pic: * working tip: the end valve cover bolts work perfectly to slide through the cam pulley hole into the block hole. they are handy to use if you already have the vc off or don't have anything else to use.
Aamir_bt The legend.. after setting the cams in time and locking them down, install the idler pulley and be sure to properly torque the bolt for it down. then loosely install the tensioner pulley, leaving the middle bolt just loose enough to be able to swivel the pulley. then slide the crank timing gear back on the shaft, and rotate it until the timing marks line up, as shown in the following picture: Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 6,777 Trader Ratings: (18) 1/4 Mi: 9.999 @ 73.80 *working tip: to easily rotate the engine, simply have the driver side tire sitting on the ground, jack the passenger side tire up off the ground, pull the e-brake on in the car, put it in 5th gear, and simply rotate the passenger side tire while observing the crank timing gear pulley untill it is lined up correctly. now it is time time to install the belt. with the cam gears still locked in place, route the belt from the crank pulley, up along the right side being sure to route it correctly, and keeping tension on the belt. then route it over the cam pullies, and back down past the tensioner, again being sure to observe the proper way to route the belt. after the belt is installed, the belt should be tight on the right side, and slightly loose on the left side. the crank pulley may be slightly off center, but it shouldn't be off my more than 1/2 a tooth. when you tighten the tensioner it should bring the crank pulley back into perfect center lined up correctly.
*working tip: sometimes, in some cases, when you go to put tension on the timing belt using the tensioner, it will rotate the crank pulley one tooth off from the correct mark. if this is the case, loosed the tensioner, rotate the crank pulley one tooth in the opposite direction so it appears to be out of time by one tooth, then be sure the belt is back in place, and re-apply tension on the belt, and it will still rotate the crank pulley by one tooth, but it should rotate it into the correct time. i did not have to do this when i did my timing belt, but depending on how loose the belt is on the right side you may have to. so just keep it in mind. now, after the belt is properly tightened and the tensioner properly tightened down to the correct torque, all the timing marks should line up perfeclty, NO EXCEPTIONS! NOTHING can be off by one tooth or anyhing of that sort. now, one of them may appear to be like.5mm off or something, and that's fine. but if something appears to be off by a tooth or more, then it is on incorrectly and needs to be reset! the cam pullleys should have the timing marks pointing directly at each other, with the bolts in to lock them in place, and the crank pulley timing mark should be directy under the small triangle arrow on the oil pump as previously shown. after all is set, remove the cam lockdown bolts, and rotate the engine a full 2 revolutions. after 2 complete revolutions, all the timing marks again should line up perfectly, and nothing should be off by a tooth or more, if something is off then it needs to be redone! after the belt is installed it should look like this:
once you are at this point, then install everything in reverse order of the instructions and then you are good to go! there may be some small steps i missed, feel free to add as you see fit or give any other handy tips. hopefully this will aid in future timing jobs by all you noobs out there.