Timing Belt install; cant get cams align

[woohoo2]

Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

[woo99SE]

are you sure the ticking noise comes from the engine?
if so where from? bottom, head, front of the head, rear of the head front of the engine. i've heard of loud ticking noise from bad timing belt tensioner (isuzu rodeo)
you can buy a cheapo mechanics stethoscope and try pin pointing where does the sound originates.
If you are certain its a bad lifter, try either transmission fluid may be 1 Oz in the oil or just buy Marvel Mystery Oil and add some to the oil if that doesn't take care of it, then consider removing the Timing belt and Camshaft which ever is the one with the bad lifter and have it replaced.

btw what grade of engine oil are you using? and what is the temp outside.

[NubiraDellwoo]

old I know...

and I probably have a bad idea to share...

But when I removed my head recently on my 2.0 Nubira
I had to replace the timing belt as well.

In the past I had difficulty keeping the cams aligned
when trying to put the belt on.
so I cheated... good or bad

After manually aligning the camshaft gears to their respective marks...
I lightly clamped a pair of vise grips at the center
between the cam gears. this held the cams in position
while I installed the belt...
if it caused any harm... I don't see any

could be they might make a sst for that... :dunno:
but using the vise grips worked great in keeping the cams aligned,
at least for me.

* vise grip clamp pressure should be light and just enough to hold the cam gears in position
* be sure the crankshaft has been rotated/aligned to it's mark before aligning the cams

If this is a bad idea please say so...
but I'm still gonna do it next time

[woohoo2]

Sorry I should have updated when I figured out the problem. Short story, probably just a sticking valve as it went away after some driving. Long story? Skip to the bottom two paragraphs.

I have another question. I was helping a friend with her lanos when I realized a possible major problem. The crankshaft pulley that the harmonic balancer bolts onto has a broken piece. See picture below of harmonic balancer pulley, in the center of the pulley you can see a slit, the slit slips over a piece of metal the extends from the center of the crankshaft pulley to keep them at the same speed. Last she drove her lanos it drove fine until it started over heating. Unfortunately she let a family friend "mechanic" mess with it and they got into a fight and he won't tell her exactly what wrong with her car so she brought it to me. She thinks she remembers him mentioning that coolant was in the oil or vice versa. I think that means a cylinder head gasket but am not sure. So my questions...anyone know where to get a new crankshaft pulley? Junkyards are my only hope now but I'm lucky if 1 of 3 have a lanos, none can tell me how much of the car is left when I call ahead, and none are within 15mins of me. Next question... is this broken crankshaft pulley a possible connection with her overheating problem? Last question is if coolant and oil is mixed does that mean a bad cylinder head gasket? Any input on any of these things will help...especially possible causes of the oil/coolant mix so I can order parts now before diagnosing (it'll be several days before I can get to it b/c of a storm) it as gaskets are as little as $10 but almost a two weeks wait this time of year so I don't mind ordering a couple I don't need. *edit. Also need air temp sensor CONNECTOR. Hers tore out of the connect and I can't find one after a quick search.* Thanks for your help guys


I started the car fine and drove it onto the street for the tow truck because I have AAA and didn't want to risk driving it to the shop. The shop calls soon after saying my battery is dead and they can't do anything til I replaced it... a 1 yr old optimal dry cell. I bring back a new one and they call the next day saying my starter is bad. I get a new one and pay them to replace it even though I could easily do it. Then the next day they call and say nothings wrong with my car and the ticking could be anything. The ticking went away over ~100 miles so I assume it was a sticking valve that got gummed up from the car sitting for awhile before I replaced the timing belt. Though I wouldn't think a sticking valve would cause extra vibrations in the drivers seat.

I have a hard time believing my starter and battery that worked fine the day before went bad suddenly at the same time. Esp cuz I have a volt meter installed and the battery seamed as strong as ever. However I really trust the shop because my family had dozens of work trucks that had a hell of a life serviced by them for 20 years.

[NubiraDellwoo]

if this was a red top...

I'll bet that 1 year old Optima wasn't really dead.

But instead might think that it was somehow discharged below 10.5v

Optima discusses revitalizing their battery when it is discharged too deeply.

Optima's FAQs... http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en/support/faqs/