I'm new here, but have been searching info for a couple weeks now. Hoping someone can help me with a new timing belt issue.
Last weekend, my 2.0 contour Zetec over heated and appreaently blew the head gasket. I tore everything down for head removal, but when I got to removing the timing belt, it appeared that the intake cam was advanced about one tooth. Now, I'm putting the resurfaced head back on and when I lined up the cam with homemade tool on end of cam, the old belt did not seem to line up with the teeth on the 2 cam sprockets. My new belt came in today, so I just went down and sat that across the 2 cam sprockets and it appears the cam will not line up when I install the new belt either. With the cam line up tool in place, I would think that the belt would have minimal slack bwtween the 2 cam sprockets. It appears I am going to have 2 choices unless someone has other ideas. (I have to get this car together today, so bear in mind, I can not run out for more parts.
When I took the engine apart, it appeared the intake cam was about 1 tooth advanced. It now looks like it was about 3/4 tooth advanced. So, should I go with that setting at reassemble or should I allow the intake cam to go aprox 1/8-1/4 tooth retarded. I can not see how the 2 cam slots are going to stay lined up once the belt is installed and tensioned properly. (Perhaps that extra slack in the belt is supposed to be there when setting/tensioning the timing belts?
