Turn the crankshaft.

The timing mark is the dash mark, not the triangle.

Crank turns 2 times for every 1 cam turn.

Line up the crank, then look at the cams. Not on the mark, turn the crank around again.

 

The two cam photos appear to show the pulleys at the correct position, with the marks at the top. But the crank sprocket photo shows the two flat sections of the back part of the sprocket at the lower right whereas they should be at the upper left. Looks as if the crank is close to 180 degrees out of position relative to the two cams. As @cardoc noted, the alignment mark for the sprocket is the short radial "dash" on the back part of the sprocket, not the triangle at the front. (The dash at the back is aligned with a similar dash on the front face of the sprocket).

Was the engine running properly just before the work began?

 

Thanks for the comments. The graphics are really helpful! The engine was running fine before I opened it up. Could it be possible that the car has been running with the timing as you see in the pictures? Or, did I do something (trying to start it after removing the harmonic balancer?) that could have caused the crank to skip on the timing belt to this out-of-time position? The belt seems very tight to me.

Maybe the more important questions at this point are:
1. is it likely that the engine is shot now that I've cranked it several rotations with it this far out of time?
2. if not, can I just take off the belt, and align the crank properly with the valve cams before putting it back together?

Thanks again,
David

 

EDIT Please see post number 9 below as this post is not correct.
Seagrass

I do not think you have understood the above posts.

The crankshaft does two revolutions every time the camshafts do one revolution.

You do not need to adjust anything, just turn the crankshaft until the correct crankshaft mark lines up and then check the alignment of the camshaft sprockets. If the camshaft sprockets are not close to alignment then rotate the crankshaft a full turn and check tge camshaft sprockets again.

Once the crankshaft sprocket is aligned AND camshaft sprockets are close then you can assess whether you need to re-align anything. Looking at the photos I suspect your black camshaft sprocket may be one tooth out of alignment.

Seagrass

 

EDIT, THIS POST IS NOT CORRECT
Soobyhobby


When all marks are aligned, the crank mark will align with the notch on the crank sensor holder, the crank key will be at 6 o'clock, the 2 cam will be at 12 o'clock.

When you turn the crank 180°, until the key is straight up (12 o'clock) the cam marks will be aligned again.

The cams will align 2x in a 360° revolution of the crank.

So in your pictures, you are seeing the 2nd cam alignment, with the crank mark 180° off the timing alignment mark.
So it would run fine. But you want to check timing alignment with all marks at 12 o'clock. (the crank timing mark is actually just slightly past 12 o'clock, but the key will be at 6 o'clock)

 

When you turn the crank 180°, until the key is straight up (12 o'clock) the cam marks will be aligned again.

Is that correct?

According to the photos of the crank sprocket (and presuming the key on the crank and crank sprocket is intact) the crankshaft key would already be near straight up.

The crankshaft does two revolutions every time the camshafts do one revolution.

Consequently, if the crank is turned 180 degrees, the key will be at the bottom, and the cams will turn only 90 degrees, i.e., the cams would move from their current 12 o'clock position to 3 o'clock.

Is this not the case?

 

When I line the crank mark to 12 o'clock (aligned with notch in sensor holder), the cam marks are at 3 o'clock. Then I rotate the crank 360 so the crank mark is at 12 o'clock again, the cams are at 9 o'clock. Pictures below:

 

When I line the crank mark to 12 o'clock (aligned with notch in sensor holder), the cam marks are at 3 o'clock. Then I rotate the crank 360 so the crank mark is at 12 o'clock again, the cams are at 9 o'clock.

I understand what the others were getting at, but I don't think it applies in your case.

In a properly set up system, when the crank mark is at 12 o'clock, the cam marks will be either at the top, or at the bottom. This is because it takes two crank rotations to turn the cams one rotation. But those are the only two possibilities.

The timing belt establishes a fixed relationship between the crankshaft and the two camshafts. In your case, the cams are either at 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock when the crank mark is at 12 o'clock. Regardless of how many times, or how much, the crank is turned that incorrect relationship remains unchanged. Therein lies the problem. In the original photos the two cams are where they should be, but the crankshaft is not.

How did you loosen the crankshaft bolt that holds the crank pulley/balancer in place?

Remove just the crankshaft bolt and check if the keyway slot in the sprocket (see image in post #3 above) is lined up with the keyway in the crankshaft itself. If it is, then the timing belt must have jumped. If it's not, then the key is damaged and allowed the sprocket to rotate on the crankshaft -- unusual, but not impossible.

 

Somehow the crankshaft sprocket has jumped about 11 teeth, there is no way this would run, and very likely valve contact was made, which likely bent valves.

Very rare possibility, the crank key sheered? Very unlikely though

 

OK, in answer to your Plain OM question, I used a quick bump of the starter with a breaker bar propped on the ground to get the crank bolt to break free.

Now, I've just removed the crank bolt and the key looks like it is still intact (see photo below). If this is true and I'm hearing you correctly, the only possible way I could see what I'm seeing is if the timing belt jumped, perhaps when I used the starter to remove the bolt initially. And it's just luck that the jump happened to be almost exactly 180 degrees of crank rotation.

In this case, I should remove the timing belt with the two cams at the 12 o'clock. Then, independently, turn the crank to the 12 o'clock so that the engine is back in time before replacing the timing belt and stitching it all back up.

If you agree with the above, what's the probability the thing will still run?

Thanks so much for the help and explanations!

David

 

@Ptarmigan

When the crank is aligned, timing 12 o'clock, key 6 o'clock, all the pistons are at midway, so this it the safest place to start.
Align the crank then remove the belt, then you are safe to turn the cams.

When the LH cam is aligned, the valves are open, that's not a safe time to turn the crank over.

 

Once the crank is aligned and belt off, put the cams in neutral, where you have freeplay in both directions.
Grab a cam gear with your hand and flick it forward until it hits the tension, and backwards until it hits tension. You should not hear any valve lash. If you hear clicking as the lobes make contact the the valves, that is a sign of bent valves. Bent valves would not seat and valve lash would be way out, so you will hear clicking.

This is a quick test I use all the time to see if valves are bent, if you hear clicking, definitely bent. If no clicking, it's a good sign, then leakdown test it the best option to 100% confirm. On a leakdown test there should be zero leakage on valves, regardless if the leakdown is a pass.

If valves are slightly bent, car can run fine but you will hear alot of valve lash noise as valves aren't making clean seat.

 

Gotcha. Align crank first, then cams. Thanks for all the assistance.

I'll try the cam flick test as you describe and hope to hear nothing - no clicking. In either case, I suppose I'll go ahead and put it back together to see what happens. I loved this car for 267k miles.

Thanks again,
David