EDIT: I got it figured out, my timing was off. Please do not use these pictures as a reference.

People who have done this before, can you please check out the following pictures? I think I am off by a tooth, it just does not look right to me. I'd like to get some feedback before I button her up. Thanks in advance.

 

I thought that the #1 camshaft lobes were supposed to be facing in the same direction, at an up angle towards one another, but here you can see they are slightly off:


And the other side:



I had a spare set of timing components, so I have not even torn into my VQ30, though I might do that soon just to cross check the timing. Trying to avoid the extra work if I don't have to do it though.

 

The cams look pretty on. But isnt the gold(yellow) link suppose to be down by the crank marking(not the TDC marking but the timing dash)?? and the darker links by the arrow on the intake gear??

 

I think your right. I was looking for two colored links, and I only noticed one. Now that you pointed out the darker link though, it makes more sense. Thank you.

In the time since I made the first post, I tore down the VQ30. I'm fairly certain I am off by one tooth, but I am going to go back to the FSM and redo everything by the link color method, now that I know which links I am looking for. Sometimes you just need another set of eyes.

 

i understand thats something you dont want to mess up. When i did mine i had two domestic guys scratching their heads at me asking me numrous of times "are you sure are you sure?"

But look at page 3 of ajcools swap page it will have all the pics that you need( i had to look at it 4-5 times to make sure i was good)

 

you might want to look at this link for details - it's an oldie but goodie:

http://www.vqpower.com/v2/articles.php?article_id=82

(and yes, your links are off..)

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I got it all figured out. I was off by one tooth. Set timing by the FSM once I figured out the whole dark link thing

Thanks for the help.

 

Did you take a close look at the crank gear? I know that there isn't much of the woodruff key actually inside the gear - but this just looks wrong to me. Not just yours, but all these conversions... Has anyone done something special about this?


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I know my crank gear was off. I didn't take any pictures after I got it set correctly, and I already put the outer case back on. Once I figured out the dark chain links, I pulled all of the timing components back off, and went back to the FSM and reset the timing per the marks on the case, along with the colored links, and the mark on the crank gear. I put the crank pulley back on and adjusted the crank position slightly to get it to line up correctly. I spun everything once I checked it 3+ more times and it moved good and didn't jump a tooth, so I threw the outer cover back on.

I'm not sure that there is anything special that can be one about the crank gear, I'm honestly not sure what your referring to, other than I know it was off in the pictures I first took?

 

It's the only toothed gear sitting on the crankshaft - that goes over the key in the crank. It's just that there isn't much of the key inside the gear. Every 3.0 timing conversion done to a 3.5 probably looks the same, and it makes me nervous. Glad you got your chains aligned correctly - that always makes me nervous, too.


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Did you have a custom gear made for yours or something? I thought you were running a 3.5 as well? Or are you just comparing it with the beefier 3.5 gear?

 

I'm just complaining about the stock wimpy 3.0 crank gear, I guess. Here is what my first 3.5 conversion chains looked like - still minus a couple of parts, like a chain guide. All stock timing gears - on this one.

 

I would have to agree it kinda reminds me of a gear off of a bmx bike

But then again so does the chains lol. They must be pretty reliable though. You dont hear many people complaining about timing chains or gears snapping (minus the tensioner which is totally irrelevant kinda like this post of mine)

 

Thats exactly how mine looked once I got it set right.

 

w00t! Good to see the cams being put to good use.