timing chain- paint marks

[tmontague]

while checking my valve clearance the other day I noticed that when I had set the engine up in TDC with the marks on each cam shaft gear facing the 12:00 position and the drive shaft mark facing the "0" point the paint marks (orange links) on the chain were not lined up with these points.

I am wondering if this means that the chain just wasn't installed with the colored links on the proper position or do these links only line up perfectly every certain rotation of the crank shaft? I assumed that these marks would line up as soon as the crank shaft was in TDC. I know that I had TDC set up properly based on the position of the three marks and positioning of the cams when checking them, however I am wondering how you get the marked links to line up with these 3 points as well

[Bluevitz-rs]

The cam chain runs at a ratio of 2:1 with the crank so it'll always be in a different spot.

[CTScott]

When you initially install the chain you do install it with the marks lined up with the cam marks, so they will align. In your case you would have needed to rotate the crank another full rotation to get them to all line up.

[tmontague]

That's the weird part. I turned the crank shaft a full turn to adjust the other 4 valves and the marks still didn't line up. I'm going to keep turning the engine and see if they eventually line up which they should I assume.

Are th marks only important when installing the chain? Once the chain is installed I'm assuming that only the marks on the camshaft gears and crank shaft pulley are important for timing and chain placement?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by tmontague

That's the weird part. I turned the crank shaft a full turn to adjust the other 4 valves and the marks still didn't line up. I'm going to keep turning the engine and see if they eventually line up which they should I assume.

Are th marks only important when installing the chain? Once the chain is installed I'm assuming that only the marks on the camshaft gears and crank shaft pulley are important for timing and chain placement?

I have an engine that I just recently pulled the head off of. Before I took it apart I was messing with the rotating it and had everything lined up. I should have tried rotating it to see how many rotations were required to get back to alignment.