dumper wrote:The bolts on the pump drive need to be loose when you tension the belt then with the pegs still in tighten the pump bolts and then remove the pegs turn engine two turns and the pegs should go straight back in if not you have to start again .
I have turned pumps anti clockwise and not had any problems
Thank you for that advice. I believe I've got the timing correct as of yesterday. I went to the hardware store and bought the only 13mm drill bit I could find, to try to do this as perfectly as possible. I was (barely) able to slide it into both holes in the rear of the engine and through the flywheel hole. The tolerances here are extremely tight, but I was able to peg it. Then I measured the holes in the cam pulley and engine block there, and came up with 8.2mm, so I took a 9mm drill bit and carefully honed it down to size, and thus was able to get a tighter fit into those holes than what I'd been using before (an 8mm threaded bolt which actually measured 7.9mm or so), but while following Dumper's directions to tighten and adjust the injection pump holes next (not the cam pulley), I noticed that the cam pulley holes are not as important. So, the peg I'd been using for the injection pump was actually turned down from a threaded bolt, much as I just did to the 9mm drill bit to fit the cam pulley holes. So that was a good, tight fit anyway. However, this time everything lined up properly, as I'd made sure the 4 injection pump bolts were loosened, and then centered that movable part, and put on the cam belt, and released the tensioner, and it popped into place, tightening the belt in all positions perfectly. And then I tightened those 4 injection pump pulley bolts, and also the tensioner bolts, and it all seems to be in order. After removing the pegs, I turned the crank two full turns, and reapplied the pegs into each hole, and they all fit perfectly; nothing had moved in the alignment of any of the pulleys. So I left it alone, removing the two front pegs, and today turned my attention to the rocker arm. Having the engine still at TDC, I tightened first the big bolts to proper torque specs, then the smaller bolts, also to torque specs, making sure the pushrods were in place. So far, so good.
But reading in "How to break sh*t" Haynes, I didn't find anywhere a proper diagram as to how the valves are numbered! I know this might seem like a novice question, but how in hell are we supposed to adjust the valves if we don't even know which valve is number 1??? I just assumed that the number 1 valve is in front of the engine, and went from there. Haynes calls for finding TDC, which I already had (with flywheel still pegged), and seeing that #1 and #4 valves were "fully opened" (whatever the heck that means!!), I adjusted #4 and #7 valves, as Haynes calls for. I checked the play in all the valves, and as one would expect, more than those two valves were "open", to different degrees. And this is where I"m getting a bit unsure of myself, and not wanting to make a mistake, I stopped and would like to ask for advice.
I adjusted those two valves (#4 and #7) to specs, but the adjusting bolts are very hard to move (Haynes says that this is normal because they have some kind of tight thread or whatever). But my problem is that both valves were significantly out of specs! I mean way off, one more than the other. Indeed, if the valve clearances are so far off, I am not surprised the engine has seemed gutless, with not much power on tap, though it seems to have run smoothly. If the valve clearances are this far off, either they are all way out of whack, or I'm doing something wrong. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong, however, but wanted to seek advice of you mechanics who are more experienced with these engines. As I've mentioned many times, this is the first time I've ever worked on a diesel engine. I can adjust the valves of air-cooled VW engines in my sleep, and have plenty of experiences with all kinds of V8 gas (petrol) engines, from 3.5 liter aluminum Oldsmobile V8s (sold to Rover in 1964; you would be very familiar with this engine), to small block 5.0 or 5.7 Chevrolet V8s, or 5.0 or 5.8 Ford Windsor engines, to 454 Mark IV Chevy big block V8s, etc. So I have some experience knowing if an engine is set up right or not. But not with this engine, thus I ask for your advice.
How can the valves be so far off? It's just amazing that I'm experiencing this. It doesn't seem likely that they would be so far out of adjustment in the course of normal utilization of an engine, even if it hasn't been maintained properly. Could the rocker have been removed in the past and then someone messed up the adjustments and then simply put it back on without adjusting anything ? Sure, that is possible but..... Have any of you faced such a situation upon purchasing a running van? Can the valves get so very far out of whack? Am I doing something wrong? So, my question is, since Haynes fails to mention this at all: How far should I turn the crank to find the next valves to adjust? Haynes just says "turn it until the next pair of valves are fully open". WTH??? How many degrees? Can I assume that I need to turn the crank 90 degrees each time? For a total of 360 degrees? Or is this a 4-cycle engine and I need to turn the crank 180 degrees each time? Please give me some kind of pointers. I definitely don't want to adjust the valves incorrectly and possibly damage the pushrods, for example, nor start the engine if the valves are not correctly adjusted. I'm sure you all understand my desire to get the job done right, and adjusting valves should be very simple, but if I had a properly running engine, I'd not expect to have to make significant adjustments. I will await further instruction before I turn the crank one bit!
Meanwhile, I will clean out that intake manifold I removed, and probably remove the other half of it and clean it too. Nothing finer than doing a complete rebuild of a Transit engine in my spare time. ... and search this forum for answers to my questions, like which valve is #1, and how many degrees I need to turn the crank.