Timing mark confirmation 1987 944 8v

[MusketStyle]

Hello all, this is my first crack at a timing belt and man... it's already daunting... I can't find the OT mark and I have gone round and round with my endoscope. I'm thankful I have it because the picture and videos show a slash that I think is the timing mark but I'm not 100% sure. Flywheel kind of looks like it came off the Titanic.

The reason it's shiney is I sprayed some WD 40 on it to see if it would show up any better... The answer is definitely... Eh... Maybe...

Anyway I think at the very end of the video you will see the timing mark go by.



Also when I lock every down, where should that slash line up with the indicator? Just before or just after? I don't trust the markings on the front of the engine. They don't seem to line up very well.

Thanks all!

[Tom]

Titanic indeed. I think you circled the mark in those stills at the end. If in doubt, pull the spark plug out and watch the piston with a flashlight or put a wooden dowel in hole to watch the piston rise and peak at TDC. There's also a mark/groove at the bottom you can use. See Clarks... https://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/eng-13.htm

Also, welcome to Carpokes.

[New2me944]

Yes, your flywheel looks much like mine. What I wound up doing was pulling the #1 sparkplug and sticking a long handled plastic spoon, handle first, down the sparkplug hole and turning the crank with a socket until I could feel the piston at TDC. It took a couple of complete rotations, holding the spoon and turning the crank before I got the feel of where TDC was.

[walfreyydo]

I would recommend pulling the cover on the lower flywheel (underneath the car) and seeing if you have a notch in the bellhousing you can use to line up. I find this much easier than looking through the top inspection hole, although I am not sure all cars have that lower notch.

I typically lift the front of the car and lay on the ground with my long bar socket attached to the crank from below and turn the crank while watching the bellhousing notch until its perfectly aligned (as shown below), then stand up and check the cam mark to ensure its also *close* to perfect alignment.

All you need to do is ensure both the flywheel mark and the cam mark are lined up, then you are at #1 TDC, and you should then lock the flywheel. You could also use the cam mark to get you close, but its recommended you check both and defer to the crank mark position over the cam mark position if they arent exactly the same, because there are variables that can cause the cam mark to not be perfectly aligned at #1 TDC (belt off by a tooth, stretched belt, etc).



https://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/eng-13.htm

Also, you got a flywheel lock right? If not, you'll need that to loosen/tighten the crank pulley to the proper torque settings (155 ft lbs iirc), and also to help keep things in alignment. I think there may be 3d printer files to create your own, otherwise I have found its worth the 40-50 bucks long term to have one. I have used mine many times.