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Originally Posted by eightsandaces
OK Progress report and important question, many thanks for all responses, it's good to get all opinions and research done before holding wrenches. Mike did get back to me, seems like a very nice and knowledgeable man. Regarding the crank turner, I have the luxury of the factory Fiat tool.
The bottom line question is this:
Will hand turning the crank with belts on as slowly as humanly possible and stopping at the least bit of resistance hurt anything?
The auxillary cam as it turns out has a fuel pump cam on the end of it, the instructions state the cam can be returned to the 1 o'clock position irrespective of the valves and crank, boy is that a "hole tightening" sentence to accept. It was rather ambiguous as it then says it has to be close to the other marks, what? Lil' B has me so jumped up I'll be turning the crank like my EOD cousin takes on an assignment!!
oh the pressure!
BTW B, I'm a decent wrench, (smart enough to do homework) but dumb enough not to have found all this before starting the project. My father, still an AFST member mechanic, turned 82 today, he just doesn't remember anymore. He's counting on me!
PS Steel plugs, Aluminum head, will a break free soak do the job?
Thank you all.
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Glad the email worked out for you. IMHO, you
need to be like an EOD tech when spinning the crank... you'd be surprised how little resistance is required to bend stuff on some engines. But, as you describe it, I'm comfortable that you're safe to proceed.
BTW, I wasn't impuning your abilities at all, it's just that when someone here gets on and says stuff like "I know it's a little off", or "it may have moved", the last recommendation I'm gonna make long-distance is to spin the crank.
I've done a lot of mechanical timing in my day, in fact just a month ago I completed a valve adjustment and timing chain replacement on a 48 valve jaguar V12 with shimmed bucket tappets from a '94 XJS Cab. That was arguably the worst automotive experience of my life - checking clearances, micing shims, moving shims around where possible and figuring out what shims needed to be ordered for what cylinders. I finally had to write an Excel program just to keep it all straight - like crawling on the edge of a straight razor!
But, as involved as that was, I once did a FIAT/OSCA
few-off 1200 race engine which had no reference marks whatever. You had to mount a degree wheel on the crank and a dial indicator on the cam lobe, then run a straight edge from the degree wheel to the cams - the whole thing depended upon your seat-of-the-pants accuracy... and you think you're experiencing performance anxiety?
A long time ago, I made a tool to make sure everything stayed as set when I had a Jenson-Healey w/ Lotus 910 engine. I took a piece of bar stock and spot welded some welder's spring clamps to it to hold the cam sprockets in place, the other end on the crank pulley. I then made a reference mark on the block w/ a paint pen. When it came time to add the belt, I could check the reference mark and be certain nothing had moved.
Realize that the first time is scary. But, once you've done it, the next will be a piece of cake. IIRC, the FIAT motor needs a new belt every 30k mi. So, if you keep the car long enough, you'll get to visit this again. From the sound of your experience, and your anxiety, I believe you'll be fine. You can only test the water so far... eventually you just have to jump into the pool.
