[Tiersin]

I was driving down the street today and i havnt been pulling hard with the engine lately because of some problems, but i fixed those. I noticed a lag in power after about 4000 rpms, where my car usuialy screams. I dont think my timing is exactly on. I was wondering if anyone knew how to test everything timing and cam wise to be making the best HP. Right now i have the cam set at TDC and the pully with the 3 marks lines up right in the middle.

 

[dohcrxl]

Right now i have the cam set at TDC and the pully with the 3 marks lines up right in the middle.

That means you are using the wrong mark. You should be using the single mark that is all by itself about an inch to the right of those 3 marks. If the pointer on the lower timing belt cover is pointing to that mark and you have the cam positioned so that the 2 lines on the cam sprocket that are 180 degrees apart are level with the deck surface of the engine, valve timing is right.

 

[Ragnaarok]

also the single mark should be painted white, on my car it remained only a dot of white, but it was still visible.

 

[bobski]

If the pointer on the lower timing belt cover is pointing to that mark and you have the cam positioned so that the 2 lines on the cam sprocket that are 180 degrees apart are level with the deck surface of the engine, valve timing is right.

Unless you have an Si, or some other D16 swap. In that case, the single line on the cam sprocket should line up with the pointer on the plastic part just below the sprocket. It's about half a tooth different than the above method.
Oh... In dohcrxl's method (for D15s), the marks should be level with the valve cover mating surface, not the head/block mating surface.

 

[dohcrxl]

I'm a bit cross-eyed so I really never line those marks linke in the suggested methods. I just know by looking at the cam gear if the timing is on or not.

 

[Dren]

i just did the timing on my D16 mini me set up

i set up the crank correctly but couldn't find the mark to line up the head with. i had the one mark on the cam gear pointing straigt down (sorta like the picture in my CRX helms showed).

is this right? there aren't any interference issues. i figured if it was off a tooth or so I would adjust the AEM gear once i started her up.

 

[Tiersin]

HOLY GOD! this is amaizing! my car has never ran this good. Thank you guys for all your help on everything! (i'm a bit happy if you havnt noticed)

 

[Dren]

another way to find TDC...stick a long screw driver down the spark plug hole on piston 1. rotate the crank until the screw driver is as far as it can go up, right before it starts to head back down again. that should be TDC.