• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

How to retime a motor from scratch?

ikeru

New CEG'er
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
17
I have a '97 Contour Zetec and need to retime my setup from scratch. Both cams are totally out of alignment with each other and with respect to the crankshaft. I dug through older posts and the FAQs about timing, but they seem to deal mostly with belt replacement, slight timing adjustment, etc.

So where do I start? I figure I need to get the crank the motor till the #1 piston is at the top of its stroke and then adjust the cams individually from there. How do I align the camshafts correctly - ie, turning them so that the alignment grooves are vertical is one thing, but how do I ensure that one is not 1/2 a revolution off? Use this image as a reference? http://econtent.autozone.com:24991/...00c152/80/0a/89/b9/small/0900c152800a89b9.jpg
I'm lacking many of the helpful tools in this situation: dial gauge, degree wheel, etc., not to mention full knowledge of exactly what it is I'm doing, so I might just end up sending this to a shop. But with a new timing belt and pulleys already in hand and being the stubborn guy I am, I'd like to try to pull this off myself.

Suggestions, advice? Anything would be a huge help. My car is on blocks right now and a thunderstorm just rolled in, so I'm going to give it a night to sleep on it before I set out to work on it tomorrow.
 
You need to buy the timing kit... IIRC it costs around $25 but that is all I remember...

EDIT:
I should've mentioned that I do have the cam alignment tool but not the crank pin. That's for finding TDC on the crankshaft, right? Would you happen to know where it's supposed to go?
 
No clue what-so-ever... I have looked at all of the pictures but still do not understand :crazy:
Well - just ordered to the tool. So that should take care of setting TDC at the crank, but what about the cams? I'm wondering whether I could misalign one of them by 1/2 a revolution, meaning they'll still line up for the holding tool, but'll be way off.
 
don't worry

don't worry

If the alignment tool for your car is the same for 98 and later then don't worry. The slots in the cam are offset so the alignment plate will ONLY fit into place if the cams are in the proper position. The pin that you ordered does not hold the crank into position, rather you rotate the crank until it hits the pin and stops. BTW the pin goes into a hole under the exhaust manifold, a bit of a bugger to get to but well worth the effort.
 
Very helpful info - thanks. I got under my car today and found the crank bolt location you were talking about. The crank pin shipped today, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get it sometime early next week and finish the job. I read over the howtos, etc. on setting the timing, but I still have some questions.

A lot of people recommend loosening the cam sprockets to allow proper tensioning and remove excess slack. This is supposed to be done while the cams are unlocked to prevent damage to the ends of the shaft. But after the sprockets are loosened and free spinning, is it easy to turn the shafts by hand back into position?

Just a sanity check. For TDC at cylinder 1, the points of cam lobes at cylinder 1 should be facing away from each other; and the points of cam lobes at cylinder 4 should be facing towards, is this right?
 
Yes, the cams should be as you described. With the crank held at the pin and the cams held in place by the bar, you loosen the cam gear bolts so they can freewheel. Then you install the belt and put tension on it. When the tension is set, you tighten the cam gear bolts again. The gears will have turned on the camshafts but its ok because both crank and cams are still at TDC. You never turn them "back into position."
 
Thanks mcgarvey. This is my first timing belt + water pump + lower radiator hose job on the Contour; I'm also doing my front brakes + suspension while I'm in there. I tend to stack projects to get em done all in one shot. Since I'm still waiting for my crank pin to get in, the impatience is building and I'm trying my best to make sure that I end up with a nice grin once everything's back together and I take it for the first spin. Thanks to all the helpful replies, I think I know all that I need to know to make it work right the first time. I'll post back here with how everything goes.
 
You don't really need the crank pin. Your crank pulley may have timing marks on it (mine does not). If it does, line it up with the notch on the oil pan and you're at TDC. If not, take the #1 spark plug out and put a long screwdriver in there. Watch it as you turn the crank and when it reaches its highest point, you're there!
 
I shadetree'd mine, I had a piece of flat steel reinforcement (the kind that you'd use to join two pieces of wood end to end without gluing or toe-nailing) that fit the slot perfectly, and used a long 3/8" extension in the spark plug hole to tell me when the crankshaft is at TDC.

The crankshaft has a key for the crank pulley and timing belt sprocket that lines up at 12'oclock when the #1 cylinder is at TDC.

When I put the belt on, and hand spun the engine a few times, the exhaust cam on my 00 wound up being off about 25 degrees. I pulled the plugs and let the starter spin the engine till it built oil pressure and both cams lined right up and all the marks were right on.

I did have to wind up replacing the tensioner and idler pulleys.
 
follow-up

follow-up

timing belt job went really smoothly. the crank pin was a decent investment at $12. worth it i'd say. didn't want to be off a tooth and do the job over again. didn't end up needing to loosen the cam sprockets, belt slid on snug as a bug. no more timing belt slap and the car runs like butter. thanks for the help fellas.
 
You DO NOT have to loosen the sprockets in many cases, that's crap. Put it all together and the cam tool many times slides right in if it's right. I say because loosening sprockets gets you into the VCT cylinder cam versus sprocket conundrum if you're equipped with it. It was right before you took it apart, it'll be right once you're done if you don't touch it. If you have to slip one, loosen the intake cam only.
 
But it is easy to do

But it is easy to do

With a 1/2" air impact, it only takes a short shot to loosen both cams. Quick and easy to do.

With as much work as it is to get to the belt, tensioner, cams, and crank pin hole I can't imagine why someone wouldn't take a quick shot at the cam bolts with the impact just to make absolutely certain that the timing AND the tension is correct.
 
I realize that some people like to go ALL the way, but if the cam tool fits AND the tension is correct, AND TDC is on, AND you've rolled around the engine a couple of times to re-verify, you are THERE whether or not you loosen those bolts. You can be SURE Ford techs won't do it if cam tool fits! Note that on ANY OTHER TYPE ENGINE, you do not have to re-index those sprockets to their respective cams when rebelting or rechaining, that's BS. That's a good thing too, because on most other motors you would have to be re-pinning or have a new keyway cut to accomodate the "new" position. There's no magic to be found by loosening the bolts and then retightening them in what will pretty much be the SAME LOCATION. You just made your job harder is all. Another good reason NOT TO LOOSEN can be found in the fact that VCT cylinder/sprocket to exhaust cam timing will be preserved. Exhaust cam rotates for like 22 degrees inside VCT sprocket, where does that spread end up at in relation to sprocket teeth now that you loosened it?? It was RIGHT before, it's dang sure not now! Now the flipside is that having the ability to slip cams around can be VERY valuable when building a hot rod motor. By then however, you will have tossed the cam tool in the trash and are using a degree wheel to know where you are at.
 
Its a good idea

Its a good idea

The valve timing on the contour is very sensitive as is the belt tension. Get either one off and you will be doing the job over again, timing my throw codes or give you a poor running car and too much tension WILL cause the belt to walk off the 'front' of the cam gears and shred the belt in short order.

Yes you may be able to get away with just sliding the timing belt over the gears and be just fine.

But it takes a while to replace a timing belt, or even just adjust the timing if things go bad. The point is, do it right, it takes a small portion (a few minutes) of the 1 hour that a timing belt takes me to do, and you KNOW it is correct

The VCT is spring loaded so it will revert the correct position for static timing.

And I seriously doubt a ford mechanic would not adjust the timing each time they replace the timing belt. Its a matter of money, they screw up they get to do it over on their own time.
 
It must be really, really hard to understand that if the cam tool goes in without loosening the sprocket that it's RIGHT. It must even be harder to understand that if you have that situation, then loosen up sprocket so as to time it, and then time it, you will end up in the EXACT SAME PLACE. So just what did you "do right"? NOTHING AT ALL. The VCT is indeed spring loaded, but not the way someone thinks. Cam is sprung forward, meaning that it hits a tappet, spring gives until cam drops back enough to "pop" over tappet as if a super loose timing chain. Try dry starting a VCT with no oil in the reservoir. The motor will start up sounding like a rod knocking real bad until oil fills VCT. That's your so-called spring TRYING to put cam right. Trouble is, there's intentionally not enough spring there to load forward and stay there. THE SPRING IS ONLY AN ASSIST TO THE OIL PRESSURE which is what moves the cam. Oil pressure alone works fine when retarding cam but it can use a little help going forward in the direction of rotation because of the tappet load against it. That's the reason for the spring. As far as VCT correct position, spring would only load cam against a stop, which is exactly ONE position. VCT though can be placed any where across 22 full degrees I believe, which is at least 22 possible positions, a spring CAN'T DO THAT. The spring will NOT revert to the static timing necessarily, based on where cam is located in relation to tappets. If cam loaded against tappet, the load will HOLD CAM IN PLACE while you are moving VCT and sprocket, since the spring GIVES IN. SO WHERE ARE YOU NOW?? That is why Ford service manual states to have the cam ROTATED CLOCKWISE OR "FORWARD" against internal VCT stop when timing cams for belt. All this confusion is exactly why I say do not loosen at least the VCT sprocket/exhaust cam, because you now double your potential trouble. That's because that 22 degrees movement has to be at a certain place on cam, you loosen, you LOST IT. As far as Ford mechs go, them boys are smart enough to have already figured all this out. They will short change any way they can that still gets the job done right. They don't do anything more than necessary, the shorter time spent on one job, the more they can spend on a "trouble" job. Their pay DEPENDS on it. Don't even for a second think those guys follow EVERY LAST STEP, I've known plenty of 'em, they shortchange time any way they can.
 
Back
Top