Here is what me and Jason found out last night.

With crank pulley timed first at TDC:


^ cams were lined the following:


With ruler between two cam bolt, timing is clearly off.
I should've used rule to during timing belt job but i didn't. Now i need to do the timing job with engine in the bay instead of engine stand.



Bryan L was the first one to point out timing issue.

I figured that was it because when I bought my car my vacuum was a bit lower and it was because the timing was two teeth off. That looks like only one so you should be good just need to retime, if you have a buddy in the car timing is not too bad, do you have the tensioner tool?

Very easy to do in engine bay. Maybe get someone who knows what they are doing to help you out?

Jason D has been a great help so far. I just text him photos and he guides in my in the right direction.

Yesterday i gained full access to the belt. I agree with you Reza, it is easy and perfectly doable to work on the T-belt while engine is in the bay.





Here is the thing that bugs me a bit.
By lining up cams perfectly the crank mark is slightly off forward. If I take tooth off the crank than it falls off negative too much.

Whats your method of tensioning the belt?

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/timingbelt-2G.html



The alignment issue starts before i get to the tensioner pulley. With cam gears locked in place using the insert, I used zip ties to hold belt in place around cam pulleys, next going around idler pulley, and than around oil pump sprocket....and at this point the crank gears needs to be moved slightly off the timing mark for t-belt to fit around it.

Do you think it's off as shown on the pic?

I haven't done a 2g belt before, but can the timing plate be on backwards?

Nope i checked & it's fine

Yes it can but it'll be way off and the tabs that go through the crank sensor would hit it when you rotated the engine.

I would tell you it's fine but then again I am having a hard time confirming that your cams are straight from the pics, need a closer pic with the camera lens in line with the head and the ruler removed.

Also note that when cams are correctly lined up at 3 and 9 o'clock, the dowel pins for the cams are never straight up at 12 o'clock contrary to what is written in manuals. The intake cam dowel is slightly towards 11 o'clock and the exhaust dowel is slightly towards 1 o'clock.

Also that plate could have a little wear in the keyway slot. If you took it off you would see a little dimple on the balance shaft sprocket which shows you where TDC is without the plate. Also you could stick a long screwdriver into cylinder # 1 and you could visually see the screwdriver reach its highest point at TDC which should match the crank mark.

In regards to setting the tension, forget the vfaq method.

(1)Screw tensioner tool into hole until grenade pin can easily slide in and out of the tensioner. Leave grenade pin in the tensioner and leave the tensioner tool in place.

(2)With everything lined up and at TDC: set tension and then back off the tensioner tool rod. At this point the grenade pin should slide in/out of tensioner easily. If not, screw the tensioner rod back in, reset tension and repeat this procedure until the grenade pin can slide in/out with ease.

(3)Once pin can slide in/out without resistance, remove pin, spin motor over 6 times, wait 15 minutes and grenade pin should slide back into tension at TDC. Remove pin and tensioner rod and you are set.

You can even start the car at this point with just the timing belt on and no other belt, accessories or covers. Just don't do it for long as the water pump isn't spinning

This is how to properly set tension so that the tensioner operates within its usable range.

Here is the best one i got from yesterday:






That's very useful thanks. I read about screw driver method before but didn't trust it because it's not as precise as timing marks. Apparently when piston 1 is at TDC, i can still rotate crank slightly in either direction and piston 1 will not move. I have not verified that so i could be wrong.

I will perform screwdriver method after work anyway just to be sure. I can also try sticking "inspection camera" behind the plate to see what i can see. If both checks out than i can give her a try to see how it goes.



After i spun my motor 6 times and waited 15 minutes i measured 3.9 mm between tensioner and tensioner arm. I'll leave it as that for now but if i have to do again i will try your method first.

The cams "look" lined up to me. If you want to get creative and really find exact TDC, use a 7" degree wheel and make a piston stop.

The first time I did a timing belt in the engine bay I used one of those plastic things for the cams. I had the same problem: no matter how "lined up" everything was when I put the belt on, once it was tensioned something was off. It's because the portion of the belt between the cams and crank on the idler side is not tensioned when you put it on, and when you tension it, it pulls them out of line. I solved it by retarding the crank one tooth when I laid the belt on; it all lined up when tensioned.

The next time I did a belt in car, I left the plastic thing in my toolbox and used a method similar to Reza's. It went much more quickly.

Either way, glad you sorted your problem. Now get that Mobil 1 out of your engine, put some conventional back in, and GO BREAK HER IN!! I know you've heard mixed reviews on break-in period but anybody who thinks your engine is broken in with less than 50mi on the clock is out of their freaking mind.

When Chris and I did my timing for the first time I used the plastic thing and everything lined up perfect, no tensioner work for me though it was just the tensioning screw was in and then we unscrewed it and the car was good to go, I should probably double check my tensioner as reza specified though because we never did that check when putting everything together.

Actually i did not. With crank half a tooth off as show on the image above she still ran like a Subaru and low vacuum. It was frustrating as i really had my hopes up.

So with "old" alignment as shown above the TDC screwdriver method revealed that the piston one was slightly off the TDC point when crank was slightly off the timing mark as show above.

I took out the belt & started from the beginning again. This time i did not use the plastic insert. Instead, i zip tied t-belt around intake cam first, rotated crank to line up to timing mark, then i rotated intake counter clockwise slightly off 9 o'clock mark so t-belt teeth could engage perfectly with the crank. At first it looked like the cam gear is off (around 8:30) but ignored that and aligned & zip tied exhaust cam and then finished tensioning the t-belt.

To my surprise here is the new alignment:









^ that saved me a ton of time, thank you!



^ Synthetic has been flushed out and refilled with conventional oil. I'll keep it there for next 1000 km

I took her out for a drive and immediately notice more low end torque and more power at WOT. Roughly around 20-30%. She felt much more responsive and vacuum at idle was -19/-20.

Now (900rpm):



Before (1100rpm):





^ that's the key right there and solution to my problem.
Thanks again Jeremy

nice work Alex! Glad to see you got it all figured!

It's hard to make out the sound in the video but it does sound like an exhaust leak near the manifold...? That possible?

Thanks Bryan, it was a big relief yesterday. Now i can focus on little things like making bracket for my FPR




thanks for the tip...i'll take a look.

Haha, good stuff!

If you do happen to have exhaust leaks, Extreme PSI's new MLS exhaust gaskets work beautifully, I've replaced all on my car with them and now have zero leaks.

http://www.extremepsi.com/store/product.php?productid=29670&cat=863&page=1

I'll include that into my next shipment. I'll be swapping my stock exhaust setup to a full 3" system shortly in the future.

Today I modified 2G break bracket reservoir to work with FPR. It helps having a 3G reservoir

I like the location.

Although, I would have slotted the bolt holes to be able to slide the bracket towards the passenger side a little more.

Also.. That grounded red wire needs a ring terminal

I would also ground out elsewhere.

Other than that.. Very clean!

Haha there are few things u missed
Now i am enjoying to take care of little things after engine rebuild & brakes are completed

Well done. Glad it was something simple.
Nice placement on the AFPR

Okay, NOW I'm glad you sorted your problem

She sounds happy!

Getting ready for FP 68HTA stock exhaust is history now

Damn son..

That thing is looking good, and making my 2g look classless Will need to install some parts (and make it run :p) to get up to snuff with this one.

Looking good Alex!

Love the oem look!

Kudos!

Now can we hear it?

Looks very nice, sleek and functional.

Thanks dad



Thanks Gui, i know you walk by your 2Gb everyday (passenger side) which probably still feels pretty good



Thanks Anthony. Never give up your project.


Yep, the goal to look OEM. That is why i am also going with 68HTA



Thanks Jason, now she needs to go fast and knock free

That looks great. I love the stealthy exhaust look I want to hear it too! I bet it's dead quiet with a cat, 2 resonators as well as a big muffler. My Apexi N1 is similar but with a traditional N1 fartcan and it's extremely quiet. Sounds almost stock at idle.

Good call since you live in Cali

Thanks Lucian, it's fairly quite at idle but defiantly deep & loud at WOT. My last custom setup was high flow cat, no resonators, and straight through magnaflow muffler. The humming noise at 120km/h was annoying on long trips. This setup so far seems perfectly balanced between flow and sound. I still need more time to toy with it. Video is coming soon.

Nice that's a wicked setup Alex, my setup got quieter at idle too, much happier that way.

Conversion to SD & flexfuel completed.




After my last mix of 2.5 gallons of e85 the flexfuel sensor reported the following



And finally installed Carbonetics front skirt

She looks real mean, nice!

Im so jealous you got e85 out there

Agreed (on both fronts).

I was very upset when UPI over on 24 decided to get rid of E85.. I never really got much of a chance to play with it.

She looks good Alex!!