I can't believe I've been doing this for almost four months, I could have built another house by now
I got engine #1 back from the machine shop and doing the reassembly now. This is the one that had the horrible oil analysis and I have to say they pretty much nailed it. I wound up going .30 over because of the cylinder scoring, new pistons/rings, cam bearings. Camshaft and crank were fine, 7 connecting rods were fine (but new bearings) but one was bent. I also did the oil pump and timing chain which leads to my question. The shop installed a single row chain and I swapped that out for a new double row setup like it originally had. The 8.1's have had a few different updates to the cam sensor/timing over the years and that related directly to the type of cam sprocket. So the single row chain wouldn't have worked anyway because the new cam sprocket wouldn't have been read the cam sensor.
I am 100% certain that I had the dots on the cam sprocket and timing gear correctly aligned when I did the swap. What I am starting to doubt is whether I was at TDC vs being 180 degrees off. Is that even possible? I've rotated the engine a couple of times so I know there is no piston/valve interference. If I can do that would you call it good?
Is there a visual check I can do while the valve covers are off to double-check myself? I wish these 8.1's had some type of timing marks anywhere front or rear but I haven't found any.
thanks
Bob
I got engine #1 back from the machine shop and doing the reassembly now. This is the one that had the horrible oil analysis and I have to say they pretty much nailed it. I wound up going .30 over because of the cylinder scoring, new pistons/rings, cam bearings. Camshaft and crank were fine, 7 connecting rods were fine (but new bearings) but one was bent. I also did the oil pump and timing chain which leads to my question. The shop installed a single row chain and I swapped that out for a new double row setup like it originally had. The 8.1's have had a few different updates to the cam sensor/timing over the years and that related directly to the type of cam sprocket. So the single row chain wouldn't have worked anyway because the new cam sprocket wouldn't have been read the cam sensor.
I am 100% certain that I had the dots on the cam sprocket and timing gear correctly aligned when I did the swap. What I am starting to doubt is whether I was at TDC vs being 180 degrees off. Is that even possible? I've rotated the engine a couple of times so I know there is no piston/valve interference. If I can do that would you call it good?
Is there a visual check I can do while the valve covers are off to double-check myself? I wish these 8.1's had some type of timing marks anywhere front or rear but I haven't found any.
thanks
Bob