Swapping Out Exhaust Cam Gear

[Jimxms]

Hi Guys,

Right - here's my situation. Had a HKS Cam Gear installed a short while ago but just found out from other forums that the one I got was a 'version 1' that got discontinued because the coating on the teeth wore out pretty quickly (or sommit like that), and it fudged up a few peoples engines. Anyway, that put the wind up me so now I'm sitting here with a nice AEM cam gear and nobody willing to fit it for at least 2 weeks :(

So I've been looking around and it doesn't seem THAT hard to do - other than I'm a computer engineer by trade so none of my puny screwdrivers fit car engines :P

My understanding of the process is:

1) Rotate the crankshaft clockwise using a wrench until the white line (TDC) matches up with the '0' marking on the timing belt cover.

2) Check that the markings on the cam gears (usually white dots) are lined up with the notches on the top of the cam gear cover. If they're not, rotate the crankshaft clockwise a full 360 degree turn, then everything should match.

3) Rotate the crankshaft counter-clockwise until the yellow line (60 degree BTDC) matches up with the '0' marking on the timing belt cover.

4) Loosen the timing belt using the two bolts on the tensioner located underneath the car near the alternator.

5) Remove the timing belt from the cam gear so that when you go to undo the cam gear it doesn't muck up the position of the crankshaft.

- At this point it doesn't matter too much if you accidentally rotate the cam gears as the crankshaft is set at BTDC and you can always re-align the cam gears with the markings made -

6) Remove the exhaust cam gear, transfer the alignment 'mark' on it to the new cam gear. bolt on new cam gear.

7) Tighten up the belt again via the tensioner.

8) Make sure that both cam gears are lined up correctly with the notches at the top of the cam gear cover.

9) Make sure that the crankshaft still has its yellow line aligned with '0'.

10) Rotate the crankshaft clockwise using a wrench for several revolutions. If it goes round without interference/resistance then you;re ready to roll.

Does that sound about right?

I think the special tools I'm going to need are a 17mm socket for the cam gear bolt and a wrench to rotate the crankshaft. Any ideas what size wrench I need though, and it looks like it also needs to be angled too...:/

[Jimxms]

Managed to do this myself over the weekend. Took about 4 trips to Halfords though, and the camgear bolt was about the most stubborn bolt I've ever encountered in my life. I broke several tools and hammered my torque wrench half to death :s

Just in case anybody needs to know...

Crankshaft had a 22mm bolt and was actually fairly easy to rotate using only a wrench.

Cam gear bolt took a 3ft breaker bar along with a lump hammer and some wd40 to free it up!