[dambat]

Well, it's back together and running. The last comment by topghia " If you take the balancer off without the tools it’s game over and a new engine may be required." is not correct. If you go out of time you just re-time it using the two tools (crank pin and camshaft spider). Worst case you'll bend a valve forcing it and need to pull the head.


Mine went out of time as when I torqued the crank bolt, it pulled the cam with it, and pushed the cams forward 30 degrees. I had thought I bent no.1 inlet valves as compression on no.1 feels weak. It seems to run fine though and cylinder balance is good, so it can't be too bad.


The ford method needs a very high quality crank holding tool, as the insert is quite long and puts a lot of leverage on the tool base. No part of this tool can be cast. It's also a pain to pull the starter.



Locking it by holding it in 4th gear with the brakes on is a mugs game. You _will_ spin it backwards undoing it (doing all kinds of bad things to your vvt cam gear), and going forwards, you can pull the cams out of time. There's quite a lot of backlash in the drivetrain.



What I did in the end was borrow my neighbour's 3/4" air impact, take it to 100nM against the pin, then 90 degrees off the pin. This kept it in time but you need a strong impact. I could not be bothered with the final 15 degrees as it was already stupidly tight.



It may be worth blue locktiting the pulley to the shaft as well, remembering to heat it when you pull it. You will only need to do that when you change seals anyway.


Hope this helps. I've done 6-7 timing belts and this is the first that came unstuck this badly. Easiest was Volvo, which took about an hour.



Damien