Valve Noise/No compression

After installing the head and the chain can reach the back bone without either of the cams installed, do that mean that the chain has no kniks or binds in it ? Thanks for any assistance.

I got back to this the other day and got the cams installed and all of the valve clearnances appear to be good execpt for the #3 exhaust. There is no clearnace between the cam lobe and the cam with the smallest shim that I have. I have ordered more shims from Z1 and they should be in early next week. Hopefully that will fix my valve clearance issue on the #3 exhaust. I was able to feel compression on each cylinder by turning the motor over with the 17 mm bolt. I am hoping to have this running by next weekend.

BIGKEVIN wrote: I got back to this the other day and got the cams installed and all of the valve clearnances appear to be good execpt for the #3 exhaust. There is no clearnace between the cam lobe and the cam with the smallest shim that I have. I have ordered more shims from Z1 and they should be in early next week. Hopefully that will fix my valve clearance issue on the #3 exhaust. I was able to feel compression on each cylinder by turning the motor over with the 17 mm bolt. I am hoping to have this running by next weekend.

What is the smallest shim thickness you have for #3 exhaust, that gives you no clearance?

I had this problem once, not being able to rotate pistons. This was during a top end overhaul and was all the way back to setting timing and bam, couldn't rotate the engine 1/3 of the way. Spent an hour scratching my head all butt hurt wondering where I went wrong, Then decided to dive into it again and tear it all down. When I had removed the cylinders, a cam bolt guide fell out from the top of the piston and cylinder. I felt like an idiot. LUCKILY i was only hand turning engine very delicately with the plugs out.

Like daveo said, what is the smallest size that gives you 0 clearance, you should take that and be able to do the math which gives you a shim size within spec.

As other previous post suggested as well, having a shop manual on hand, physically helps, i tried having one on the computer, but after getting hands all greased up, no on wants that. So I would make copies of the sections that i need so they could get all dirty if need be.

also having 0 clearance means a good chance of no compression because the cam lobe will always be pushing the cam in no matter what position its at.

if all timing marks and chain are in correct position, yes, there will be lobes pushing down on valves, Star pattern out your tightening sequences to not stress anything out.

I put the cams in the they appear to be lined up right, but when I tighten down the intake cam, the 1 and 4 timing mark is no longer lined up. I am able to turn the crank via the 17 mm bolt and the exhaust cam lines up, but the intake cam mark is not pointing at the top of the head, but is jus below the head. I have counted the links between the intake and exhaust cam and the 28 pin is lined up correctly. Any ideas what would cause the cam to be out of alignment after tightening down the cams ? Any further help is appreciated.

BIGKEVIN wrote: I put the cams in the they appear to be lined up right, but when I tighten down the intake cam, the 1 and 4 timing mark is no longer lined up. I am able to turn the crank via the 17 mm bolt and the exhaust cam lines up, but the intake cam mark is not pointing at the top of the head, but is jus below the head. I have counted the links between the intake and exhaust cam and the 28 pin is lined up correctly. Any ideas what would cause the cam to be out of alignment after tightening down the cams ? Any further help is appreciated.

With the exhaust cam and timing marks aligned, press down on the chain between the cams and that will rotate the intake cam slightly, bringing the intake arrow into alignment. Consider that the chain guide inside the cam cover will press down on the chain with the chain tensioner removed.

As daveo said, the guide in the cover will probably fix your arrow alignment. A stretched chain will cause alignment issues as well.

So I need to put the exhaust cam in and tighten it down with the mark aligned. Then install the intake cam but don't tighten is down and then push down on the chain between the 2 cams to bring the intake cam into alignment and then tighten down the intake cam ?

Daveo, When the intake cam is installed, the timing mark is aligned with the top of the head. The 1 and 4 cylinders are at TDC and timing mark is on the T. I can tighten down the exhaust cam and everything looks good. When the intake cam is tightened down, the timing mark on the cam is at the top of the head, but the 1 and 4 cylinder mark is no longer on the T, it has moved passed to T, When the crank is turned, the exhaust cam timing mark is at the top of the head, but the intake came is below the top of the head. Are you saying that I need to keep tension on the chain between the cams while tightening it down ?

I am still having problems getting the cams lined up. I have taken some pictures of the installation process so hopefully someone can see what I am doing wrong. Here is the picture of the cams/chain installed but not the top chain cover. The second picture is with the cam caps installed. The last picture is after turning the motor over with the 17 mm bolt. Do the cams look like the are in time ? The intake cam carrot is just below the head and the exhaust cam carrot is just above the head. I also notice that after tightening everything down that the "T" mark for the #1 and #4 cylinder is not longer directly on the mark but it had moved forward of the mark. This is my first time trying to post pictures so I hope they turn out right. Any help would be appreciated.

Getting frustrated with trying to get the cams timed. Can someone tell me if they look like they are timed correctly ?