Thinking ahead to putting the drive train back in the car, a couple of questions come to mind.

1. With the pulley with the timing marks so close to the firewall, how will we set the timing?



2. In the future, how will we turn the engine if we want to adjust the valves with the engine still in the car?

Pieper

1.) Most? cut a hole in the firewall to access the distributor, see the timing marks and change the alt belt. Alternatively, you can mark the flywheel and cut a hole in the tin to see the marks at the parting line. When loosening or tightening the distributor bolt ... keep your thumb outta the fan!

2.) The firewall cutout will allow access to the crank pulley bolt and marks. You can turn the engine with a wrench, but seeing the marks is the problem. You can turn the engine and use the "backside" method as you can see the position of the lobes of the cam.

I tried a mirror for all the above, gave up and cut the hole. Oh, you fabricate a cover for the hole too!

Put the car in 5th, jack one side of the car up, rotate the wheel forward ONLY and use a mirror to check the timing marks.

How'd you make the cover. Any pics?

Pieper

the cover can be nearly flat
they are fairly easy to fabricate
we made one from aluminum and it was also easy to roll 2 edges.

brant

When my car was a 2.7L I used the flywheel and timed from the rear of the engine. The DME engine doesn't need it... obviously.

My access port is larger than most because I actually wanted not to be crowded by any operation... including a broken fanbelt. The cover was simply formed over the piece I cut out, but big enough to use Dzus fittings around the perimeter.

Below are two photos, one during the 2.7L to 3.6L conversion. The other is current.

Good luck

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Wow! Thanks for the pics.

Pieper