Ok. I am doing my timing belt. When I took off my crank pulley the key came out with it. I didn't realize that this key locked the cams and crank together. So I turned the crank to get it lined up and the cams wouldn't move. But I turned the crank I don't know how many times. Here is my problem...

Apparently the crank turns twice to every single revolution of the cam. I put the key back in but now I'm scared that I might be 180 degrees off.

The manual says that I should line up the crank key with the mark on the oil pump and put the front cam on cylinder 1 to put the new belt on. Everything lines up so is that ok?

On the opposite tdc stroke from #1 is #5. If this is ok does that mean the stroke order is 1,x,x,5,x,x. If it is then I guess that is good.

 

I mean as long as I line it up like the manual say it should be good right?

 

I would contact a reputable Acura dealer or service shop.

 

Ok. Well I figured it out. For anyone that cares here is what I did. The trick is knowing that cylinder 1 is at tdc with the crank in the right position. So I just stuck a long skinny piece of metal in the spark plug hole for cylinder #1 and watched it move up and down as I turned the crank. It ended up in the right position and the piston was correctly at tdc.

 

On the very old style engines, the piston not only needed to be at TDC, but TDC on the compression stroke to get the igniton correct, but as you have lined up all 3 correctly it will be good. Did you notice any resistance while turning the crank? The 3.2 is an interference engine, so while turning the crank, the valves weren't moving so I would assume there would be piston to valve contact at some time.

At least the engine wasn't turning over with much force. Hopefully all's ok.

 

Nope. No real trouble turning the crank. It went around smoothly. After I got everything together. But when the crank was spinning freely I think there was one point in the revolution that was a little resistant to go thru. But it did. I don't think that would hurt anything.

I think that the valves really only get bent when you throw in the normal boom from combustion. But that's just my opinion. I might be wrong.

 

Not a good thing at all. Combustion has no effect on whether you bend valves or not, only piston to valve clearance. Speed doesn't matter, just the fact that you turned the crank over twice with the cams stationary, chances are you hurt some valves. The difference being, with the valvetrain being stationary you probably didn't hurt every valve, just the ones that were open at the time. You'll probably get a CEL for random misfire at some point. There's always the small chance that you had no valves that were fully open and no damage occurred but it's doubtful.

If the cams were already locked into position, all you need to do is get the #1 cylinder at TDC. The cams determine what is on compression and what is on exhaust, not the crank position.

 

Ok. Thank IHC. I learned something new.

Well I finished my car and it is running perfectly. I didn't get into it cause it is raining. But she is running smooth. So bent valves? Maybe not. I didn't get any CELs.

 

Hopefully no bent valves. It's possible that everything happened to be in the perfect position for the valves to not contact the pistons. With the cams not turning such as when the timing belt snaps, your chances that nothing collided are greatly increased. If you ever get a random misfire code you'll know where to start looking. If it's going to do it, it's going to do it. I would have fun with it and not baby it.