1986 1st Supra Running Poorly

[dlfred]

I am checking the cam timing and I remember reading somewhere that you can look inside the oil filler cap and see the cam lobe pointing upward. I believe that the guys who did the BHG made white marks and a L or R on the cam gears. The issue I am having is that when I line up the painted lines and the crank is on 0, I can't see the upward pointing lobe. The look more closely and see stamped marks at 6 oclock. So my concern here is that somehow the guys have the cams 180 out. I don't even think it would run. I rotated the crank 360 and the lobe still cannot be seen. The car has been running OK just a idle issue.

So here it is.

1) Does anyone know about the looking at the intake cam and seeing the lobe when piston 1 is at TDC?

2) What is the deal with the marks on the cam gear? Painted vs Stamped?

[btwilson86]

Looking through the filler cap is more of a rough estimate of the intake cam being in the correct spot. With the upper timing cover off, you should disregard this method and align the cam and crankshafts via the timing marks.

Now, the 2 pictures you show of the intake cam gear tell me that your intake cam is 180? off of where it should be with the engine at TDC on the compression stroke. The white mark on the gear at the bottom has a small notch in it, that is the true timing mark. The other marks were from somebody removing them when the engine was NOT at TDC, and it just helped them put it back to how it was.

IIRC, you shouldn't be able to install the cam gear onto the camshaft any other way than how it is supposed to be on there due to alignment pins.

[dlfred]

Thanks BT. I completely blanked and was influenced by the previous mechanics timing marks. Followed the procedure as described and all is well. Every time I have gone over some of the assembly from the HG repair, it has improved the car drive-ability. This site has been a great help.