OHV Timing chain PLEASE HELP!

[jrny4rbys]

Remember there are two TDC's. Did you get it on the compression stroke of #1?

I'm honestly not sure during the original installation. We found a TDC and installed the timing chain, both dots at 12. I just don't know which. From the way it runs, I think we may have installed the chain wrong.

 

[Jim Oaks]

The piston comes up on the exhaust stroke. I'm guessing that when the piston came up you thought it was on the ignition stroke, but it was on the exhaust stroke pushing the spent gasses out through the exhaust.

It's kind of hard to help you not being able to look at it and not knowing what you've done. But as I said, it sounds like it's 180 degrees out of time. Question is, why? Did you rotate the camshaft or the crank while the timing chain was off? I think you're TDC on the exhaust.

Locate Top Dead Center (TDC):

1. Locate Cylinder #1: Remove the spark plug from the frontmost cylinder on the passenger side.
2. Rotate the Crankshaft: Use an 18mm or 19mm socket on the center bolt of the crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer). Rotate the engine clockwise.
3. Identify the Compression Stroke: To ensure you are not 180° out of phase, place your finger or a thumb over the open spark plug hole while rotating the crank. You are on the compression stroke when you feel air pressure pushing your finger away.

In this position, I'm guessing that both dots are in the 12 o'clock position. The crank should be in the 12'oclock, and the cam sprocket should be in the 6'oclock.

Camshaft Position Sensor:

Actually, I just re-read your original post. You replaced the camshaft position sensor. I'm guessing you installed a new one with the engine 180 degrees out of time.

We cover this in our Tech Library:

Ford Camshaft Position Sensor (CMP) / 3.0L, 4.0L & 5.0L - The Ranger Station

Ford Camshaft Position Sensor - Here's how to remove the Camshaft Position Sensor (CMP) for the Ford 3.0L, 4.0L & 5.0L engines.

www.therangerstation.com

Give it a read.

 

[Snoranger]

You can’t time the CAM 180° out. It’s impossible.
If you line the marks up exactly 180° out and spin the crank over 1 revolution, you will be lined up correctly on compression stroke TDC.



You can however drop the cam sync in with the engine 180° out. The ECM programming has a fail-safe. If it sees the cam sync way out or no signal at all (unplug it and try), it will run the injectors as batch fire and allow the engine to run. The early OHV motors didn’t even have a cam sync, they used this programming. I actually ran my 95 SOHC/OHV swap without the cam sync for a while, it will just set a check engine light.


Sounds like you have another issue.