Eric Cheatham

My cam and lifter showed up a few days ago. I spent today getting the car into "service position".

I'm still trying to see if the entire timing belt needs to come off, though.


I have a mechanic coming over next weekend to help me do it.

I'm pretty sure we can keep everything in line without the cam tools, but is there a special tool that I need for a tensioner? I thought I read somewhere about needing that? hmm...

Thanks again, ya'll.

Eric Cheatham

I see some guys Zip Tie the timing belt to the cam gears first, then remove gers, then swap out cams, then re-instal gears.

Any reason why this wouldn't work with the a6?

5v/cyl

The cam gears are not keyed to the camshafts so this will not work. You need a crank lock pin and cam lock alignment bar to get timing back correct. Don't even try without these tools.

Eric Cheatham

Are you talking about the horseshoe shaped tools that hold the cams in place? I need to replace a cam so I can't put anything on a cam that's not there.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, I looked at a few pics of the cam gears and thought I saw key grooves.

jseklund

I haven't done this on the 3.0, but I've done it on a 2.7, which is different but I had similar feelings to what you have - how can I take things off that require the removal of the tool to come of.

What you are trying to do, roughly, is to set the engine crank to TDC and lock it in place with the pin so it can't be moved. This gives you a reference point for the crank.

At this point, the horseshoes should go on the cams with little or hopefully no adjustment required. Lock them in place while you do the work and remove the belt. No need to have something move unnecessarily.

When you pull the cams off, you will have to take the tool off. But the rest of the engine will be locked in place, and the tool will only go back on when the cams are in their referenced position, so your timing will be correct this way.

The sprockets that the belt goes around do not "key" to the cams, they spin freely until you tighten them down with the bolt. This means, they can turn on the cam as you replace them. This means that the belt could go on, but the cams could be in any position at all and the belt and sprockets willl just slide back on. The position of the belt is really meaningless though, it's the position of the cams in reference to the crank that matters.

Good luck.

Eric Cheatham

Ok, thanks for the replies.

I went ahead and bought those horseshoe shaped Cam Locks. Can I just use the locks on the side I'm working on?

I'd rather not take the drivers side valve cover off.

You must be thinking, "This guy doesn't want to do ****", well; you're right. I only like to do this sort of work on my racecar, not my DD. Ha!

jcman

Lock the crank, lock both cams, mark the cams then do the replacement at the same mark on that exhaust cam.

As it's been mentioned before, the cam belt sprocket is not keyed and as long as the crank pin is locked and the cams are locked the belt position does not matter of course with no slack across the top between the cam sprockets because the tensioner does the rest on that side of the crank belt sprocket, I'm sure you get it.

Read again the PDF I sent you and read the TB info in the forums, if you're off timing you are screwed so take your time and do it right.

Eric Cheatham

Thanks guys.

One more question.

I know that I need to remove the passenger side cam gears because I need to replace one of the cams, but do I really need to loosen the driver side cam gears like the timing belt write up says?

Eric Cheatham

I feel sorry for anyone who attempts this.

Removing that rear housing for the camshaft position sensors is a pain in the ***. I have big hands so this made it that much more worse. I've got blood slung all over that damn motor.

It took me 4 hours to get those 6 bolts out.

Tommorow, I'll unbolt the camshaft cradle and replace the cam and lifter. I don't have new gaskets for the Cam Pos Sensor Housing or Cam Adjuster Housing. I'll just clean up the gaskets and hit them with some orange sealant.

One step at a time......

Anything else I'm forgetting?

Eric Cheatham

Oh yeah, those brittle valve cover vents. I broke them both...

They didn't stand a chance.