Cam Alignment on a 960

kluhrm123 · Post by **kluhrm123** » 19 Sep 2011, 11:25

Quick comment- (read above)- should I call Clear Water as it appears I have two Intake cams- instead of one intake and one exhaust???? Thanks so much for your help Kaitlyn

danr960 · Post by **danr960** » 19 Sep 2011, 14:36

No, you most likely have the correct cams, the exhaust cam has the cam sensor on the rear, part of that sensor is the shutter wheel which attaches to the back, so you will have to take yours off and reinstall on the new cam.

Remember, the exhaust cam and the intake cam are different, so be sure to be able to tell them apart and reinstall correctly or you will have more problems.

Also, when you replace the front cam seals you will need to remove the timing belt gears on both cams, make sure to mark how those gears fit on the cams. There are three bolts that hold them on but nothing to tell you what three holes so you will have three choices and it is not fun to figure out so do your self a big favor and mark those gears to their cams.

DanR

kluhrm123 · Post by **kluhrm123** » 19 Sep 2011, 15:46

Thank you so much. I will work through this now- and keep you posted when I work it.

Kaitlyn

Post by **precopster** » 19 Sep 2011, 16:43

Place both cams in the position as shown on my first pic; the slots at the rear should both be horizontal. IF NOT you have the same cams.

Cylinders 3 & 4 work together and are about 1/3" below deck height when the crank notch is lined up to the mark on the oil pump.

kluhrm123 · Post by **kluhrm123** » 20 Nov 2011, 16:54

Sorry that it took so long to complete this. We had many little challenges along the way. But the car has been completed (about 3 weeks ago) and running down the road again. I really want to thank you so much for your assistance. the car is running great again.

Kaitlyn

Post by **precopster** » 20 Nov 2011, 18:16

Thanks for the update. Good luck in keeping her running well. If not you know where we all are

kluhrm123 · Post by **kluhrm123** » 30 Mar 2012, 17:41

Sorry for the very late answer back. We finally got the up and running again. It turned out that it had a burnt valve. Once replace with the redone head from Florida it is running great. I just wanted to thank you so much for your help. Kaitlyn

Post by **precopster** » 30 Mar 2012, 19:47

Thankyou Kaitlyn, you updated us in November, but great to hear it's still running well. Just keep up to the timing belt maintenance as well as the tensioners and pulleys and the new head should last well into the next decade.

It may pay to use Techron fuel system cleaner to help keep the valve seats clean every 10 or so fills. Dirty valve seats will result in burned valves, especially if you aren't running premium fuel.

kluhrm123 · Post by **kluhrm123** » 21 Jul 2013, 19:10

Precopster and DanR- The over all head change over worked out well. I will leave out the challenges we had with our Mechanic since it took 4 times longer- but we were happy to get it back. Now comes our next adventure. It will involve resetting the timing again fixing our water pump and replacing the rear seals. Not sure why the seals went out but they are leaking in the back. I wanted to ask some basic questions on this one as i explain what happened. My daughter dives the car and she got to her apartment and parked the car. Shut the car off- went in and then decided to move the car. So upon restarting and moving the car makes some terrible noises and then parks it. After having it towed I bought it to the house. took off the front plastic cover to view the timing belt. The belt was still in place but the water pump shaft/gear was gone. she doesnt think it got hot and there was no steam. So I am in process of changing out water pump and rear seals plus a couple other small items. My biggest concern is whether it may have any engine damages. The belt was in process of moving forward and it moved into the plastic cover. What thinks should I look at to investigate the condition without tearing into anything. I thought about doing the water pump and then setting up the belt but was concerned. Advice would be great (let me know if this should be a different post or not). Mike

Post by **precopster** » 21 Jul 2013, 21:28

So the water pump gear was sheared off?

If that's the case and the engine ran while this happened there's a very good chance that there is valve damage. These are interference motors and therefore don't tolerate having the crank turn while the cams stay still.

You may be lucky but this is going to be very difficult to:

1) Time the motor as the crank and cams are now out of phase
2) Take a compression test to check the damage (if any) because of above.

If you try to time the motor by changing the water pump and can see the crank mark and cams are out of phase you have a problem.

One of 2 things will happen:
1) By turning them while out of phase the motor will stop as the valves will clash with the pistons.
2) They won't clash at all because the valves have already been bent enough to allow clearance.

Removal of the head's top cover to de-pressurise the valve springs and re-timing it may be the only way to assess this properly.

Cam Alignment on a 960

Re: Cam Alignment on a 960