Hello all, After reading posts I decided to take on a timing chain replacement job. My truck was bucking like crazy and sounded like a diesel. I open her up and sure enough the chain guide had deteriorated! So now I have everything off except the chains and gears. Before I take them off I want to make sure i have the engine timed correctly. From every thing I've read I need the two colored links on the chain to straddle the mark on the cam. That brings us to my problem. The problem is my stock chain doesn't have any colored links and my cams have TWO different marks on each of them. A dash on one side and an ENTER sign on another Drivers Dash - ENTER is on the bottom Passenger ENTER sign Passengers Enter sign Which one of these am I supposed to use?
Hmm. That's confusing. Personally I would buy new chains just so I wouldn't mess it up. I can actually explain this better in the morning with some pics online but I don't have time to do it tonight. Price out some new chains, wouldn't hurt to replace them as well if they are reasonable.
Ok here's your explanation Take your chains off. Set them on a table. And put them like this, laid out so that they are in a straight line. You should have one side with a link running up and down, and the other side should have to links running parallel. Mark them with a sharpie or paint pen. The parallel links go on the cam gears, the single link on the other side goes on the crank gear. Put your crank key way at 12oclock to prevent PTV issues. The dot on the crank gear is your timing mark, NOT THE KEYWAY. Put the single link on the crank and the double links should be on either side of the cam gear TIMING MARK. Note: the passenger side can hear has a timing mark (little dot) and also a raised bar that people think is the timing mark. Do not confuse the two. Do this for both sides and then rotate the engine by hand slowly to make sure that it moves freely. You can just tighten the dampener bolt in and rotate clockwise.
