The search feature has not yet helped me find a similar problem already on here, and Google can't help me either.

The problem is this, I blew an intake manifold gasket and shot coolant through my engine. Cooked it's goose when the coolant temperature sensor failed and it overheated, then I began a top end rebuild.

Now I've learned a lot during this rebuild, in fact let's suffice to say that I didn't know s*** when I started. I made a lot of mistakes and this site among other things have saved my *** time and again during the rebuild. I did paint mark my timing belt before removal, but upon re-install I realize that I have 2 intake cams... ...yeah.

So I can match the cams to each other for perfect timing, but I cannot match them to my crankshaft (I painted the harmonic balancer on accident, tried to do it right but failed to realize it was going to come off).

Now that the situation is clear, I'll ask my real question. How can I know that the timing is right? I know that the crankshaft was basically TDC when I removed the belt, so I'm looking at about 3 teeth either side of TDC when I put the belt back on. Would it be safe to put belt on, then turn the crankshaft with a ratchet, to see if it clears with out any bad contact inside engine? Or are the valve springs powerful enough to break parts if a valve touches a piston?

I do know that I'm looking at a damn small window of safe operation, but I just don't know where to go from here. Does anyone have suggestions of how to check timing without turning my key and crossing my fingers to not throw away the whole car?

 

the cam pullies have arrows that need to be pointing together, there is an arrow on the crank pulley it needs to be pointing at the arrow on the block and turned 1/2 a tooth counterclock wise. install the belt around the crank then the waterpump sprocket, idler pulley, and then the camshaft sprockets and then the tensioner pulley.
move crankshaft sprocket to tdc to take up slack in belt, install the tensioner to block but dont tighten, using a torque wrench apply 250 INCH lbs to tensioner pulley, with torque applied to pulley move tensioner up against the pulley bracket and tighten to bolts to 275 INCH lbs. pull the tensioner pin. rotate crank by hand twice to check timing mark alignnment.

 

BTW i did 3 timing belts and waterpumps last year, those directions come right out of the service manual. I did 3 DOHC's exactly this way and didnt have any issues and started on first try.

 

Alright, thanks for the specs on the tensioner pulley, I did not know that part and could not find that either.

Here's the real problem, I kept uncovering more discrepancies as I went along. Looks like this engine suffered junkyard parts, I have 2 intake cams or at least the sprockets are both from intake cams. The paint marks from belt to sprocket match each other perfectly so I'll know those for sure. However since I didn't educate myself at all until recently, and after disassembly, the crank was NOT TDC when I removed the belt. There's the problem, I have to find out my valves in relation to TDC.

I do know that during the first stage of the cycle my intake valves should open as the number one piston goes downward. So it's a simple matter of figuring out which way the crankshaft turns during normal operation, and glancing at the cams to figure out if they're going to head to right direction. I'm just wondering if eyeballing it will bend/break a valve if I'm, say, 3 teeth off and I hand crank it to see if it clears the pistons.

Since the factory marks are useless, I just want to know if I'll be able to test it by hand.

 

Part #s for the intake cam are 4667917 and 4777631AA. Exhaust part #s are 4667918 and 4777632AA. This should help you identify your cams.

 

Thanks to some pics I googled from your help with the numbers, I managed to figure out my problem, and to anyone that runs into this problem, I hope this helps them. To recap, I discovered that the 1998 Neon DOHC I purchased came with 2 intake cams, for whatever reason. After trial and error I ended up flipping the cam on the exhaust side 180 degrees, so the factory marks lined up. Lucky me, they hadn't managed to mount the cam sprockets at a bad angle, and they matched the cams' proper directions. It started, ran better than before, then I suffered some sort of massive electrical failure which I will start a new thread for.

So if you can only find the wrong cam at a junkyard and you need to not pay $400 for a pair of em, you can always flip one upside down and mount it in there.