I'm just looking at changing a few pulleys on a yb I've just purchased including the cam pulleys. The engine is Newley built with new cam belt but I want to know if I can lock the cams, crank etc or mark them somehow so that when I take the belt off I can change the pulleys without knocking the timing out??

I will be having the engine fully checked out when it's back in the car as it will be going to my local rs garage to have all the final checks and little bits done.

 

Safest thing to do is using a pair of dial indicators and measure the lift at TDC for both intake and exhaust cam. Then when you swap pulleys, you set the cams back to the correct position. They don't cost much on ebay.

Bend a piece of steel in a J form and fit it to the end of the dial indicator so that it clears the cam and measures the lift directly at the lifter.

 

I think your over complicating the reply there mate but your right in wot your saying .
I think the reply your looking for mate is No you can not lock the cams like a zetec motor you will have to reset all the timing when you remove the pullys . The best thing you can do is get the Big blue book it will tell you 100% how to do it it's very simple. Do not turn the key till your 100% it's timed right as you will bend all the valves if your rong

 

And how are you going to be sure it's timed right? He will need to measure it..

 

I'd say the job is easy enough, just mark everything before its removed. Its easy enough to set a pair of new verniers to be the same as the ones removed, all you need is a timing belt and a strip of metal thats exactly the same thickness as the keyway. Use the belt half on each pulley and line up the keyways and lock off.

 

I agree, do it that way.

 

Thanks for the help all. I was fairly confident but just wanted to make sure that there wasn't any special tricks before I attempted it.