I have an odd question about timing. Everything i've been reading and videos i've watched say to allign the timing spoke to 12 o'clock and the notch should be at 1 o'clock on the crankshaft pully. after tearing my engine apart i noticed on the timing cover two marks stamped into the cover one says 10 Degrees and the other TDC. The TDC mark is about 11 o'clock and the spoke is about 10 o'clock. Do i use these markings or go by the spoke. Sorry i don't have a picture my truck is currently about 30 min away. But i'll post a pic as soon as i can.


Mark

 

year and engine size?

 

Sorry about that 2005 F150 FX4 5.4 3valve. I'm assuming it's just to show TDC i thinik i need to rotate to the 12 o'clock to pull the followers and then to the 6 o'clock. I bought the otc crankshaft alignment tool.

 

I set my harmonic balancer with the spoke at 12:00 and the tick mark at 1:00. Then with the valve covers off, I looked to make sure that the cam lobes were pointing the right direction (pic of this in my album), it they were, then all was good. If not, then I rotated the harmonic balancer a full turn until the tick was at the 1:00 position again, then looked at my cam lobes to make sure they were pointing in the right direction. That kept me in time. I never did use the alignment tool, or remove any followers to relieve any tension. I guess the alignment tool and removing followers doesn't hurt but I planned on removing my cams anyway to replace all the followers and lash adjusters. I did mark the cams in a couple places with a paint marker on the cam caps and non journaled parts of the cam to make sure that they lined up afterwards though. I did all my timing components as well during that job.

 

Is this one of the videos you watched?


I just followed everything he did to the letter and I didn't have to worry about any marks on the timing cover that you're talking about. Putting the detent on the crank sprocket at 6 o'clock, like he does in the video, is a whole lot easier than trying to position the keyway at a certain angle.

 

Yes i must have watched this video 70 times and his camphaser one too. He makes amazing videos. I think i will just ignore the marks on the timing cover, and do it the way he does.

Thanks