Hi everyone,

I am from France, I am sorry if my english is not perfect or if I make any strange mistakes by typing my messages lol I am new to the site and happy to have found this forum as I just bought an rs cosworth from 1992 YB engine blue cover I am very happy with it and decided to make a complete checkup including timing belt and water pump (the basics).
My question is on that subject and here is the summary of what I noticed and would like to get your advises

Before dismantling the timing belt, I decided to put all the marks to the original points as per the manual to make sure everything was ok.
The camshafts points to each other as per as indicated in the manual.
The auxiliary pulley, the pointer points to the centre of the half moon on the auxiliary shaft cover as per indicated in the manual.
The crankshaft pulley has 4 lugs at 90 degrees each and one notch. On my car, when the above mentioned pointers are placed, the pointer from the engine points at the notch.

On the manual, concerning the cranckshaft pulley, they say that the pointer needs to be bang on the left edge of the lug when camshafts and auxiliary pulley are pointed like it is on mine.
The notch is for 16 degrees BTDC and not for TDC.

1. how come my car worked this way as the pointer is placed on the notch instead of the left edge of the lug?
2. what shall I do when putting the new belt? pointing everything as it was or just putting back everything as per the manual?
3. Do I need to do anything to ignition timing?

Thanks for your answers and hope I was clear on my explanations Cheers

 

The ignition timing is controlled via ECU, so nothing to do, also no need to change water pump.

Are you sure the engine is at TDC? I can’t see how that ever would be right, as it’s 16° BTDC, which is for the ignition timing. The rotor arm should be at 2 o’clock.

This will result in bent valves, it’s a common (and costly) mistake for this to be used.

Whatever you do, be sure to turn it over by hand a few times after before starting.

Martin

 

Hi Martin, Thanks for your quick reply.
In fact, I agree with you and do not understand neither how this could work but believe me, the camshatfs and auxiliary pulley are perfectly in line as per as the manual and my crankshaft pulley is on the notch instead of the edge of the lug.
I need to check the rotor arm as I could not find the "dot" which is supposed to be on the body of the ignition case.

If I understand properly, you would recommend putting back as per as the manual and check by turning by hand, is that right?

FYI: I replaced water pump as it started leaking pretty hard

 

So are you 100% sure that BEFORE you removed the belt that is how the crank pulley was, or is that how it is now you have reassembled?

Re the rotor, it should be at 2 o’clock.

As to your question, I am not going to tell you either way and it would be wrong of me to do so, as you can’t say over an Internet forum, bear in mind I have not even seen it.

What I am saying is you should always turn over a few times by hand before attempting to start, that way you will know if anything is wrong before starting it.

Martin

 

I am 100 percent sure it was like that before i dismantled as I put cams to original TDC and marked everything with black and white tape. I did not reassemble yet, making sure what I have to do first as the original situation of the car sounded to me a bit weird

Of course, I am not expecting anybody to tell me what to do or even take the responsability of it, I just want to be sure that the crankshaft pulley mark must be as shown on the manual (which in fact is not what I had originally...).

I will of course make sure to turn few times the engine before starting it, no doubt about that

Thanks for your answers and your help Martin, I will come back here to tell you what happened, if thats a yeahhhhhh or an Ohhhhhhh lol

 

Hi Martin,

As we discussed, I come back to you concerning the timing of my escort.
I checked everything as we discussed and the rotor from the ignition was also at 14h when camshatfs in line to each other and auxiliary pulley in the middle of the moon. There was only one solution left and in fact, the crankshaft was not in line and a bit more than one tooth out, that means the crankshaft has been placed previously on the BTDC mark from the pulley instead of the left edge of the lug.

I put everything back as it should be, tested everything and car is running perfectly after 20 kilometers of test I noticed there is half a tooth out depending how I turn the engine but it looks almost perfect

It looks like that the escort can run with one tooth out OR they did something with the engine inside I am not aware of, such as pistons or head gasket, etc...

Anyway, it works now and thanks a lot for your help

Cheers, Roland

 

That's cool, I think you were lucky.

It must run better, as the ignition timing would have been out, do you have hotter cams out of interest? (i.e. BD14)

Incidentally, I have just changed my cam belt.

The only thing I would say from experience is the tension, it should be tensioned when the engine is hot, as the belt gets tighter.

You should be able to twist it through 90° the longest run.

Martin

 

Yep I am very happy with results of what i did.
I tensioned the belt to about 90 degrees also but engine was cold, when it runs it sounds ok but will for sure check when engine is hot as you mentioned.
Concerning the cams, I assume they are original but I personaly did not make any changes on them, is that what you meant to know?