St215 beams cam alignment

[Mop]

In the middle of a timing belt change on my vvti Caldina, can anyone give me their thoughts on the existing alignment of the camshaft pulleys?
The vvti pulley mark (last pic) looks 1 tooth out to me? The car runs well, except running a bit rough when idling after being in some traffic (pretty sure this is the radiator fans not turning on when they should to keep the coolant cold enough and the Ecu adjusting fuel trim to combat the heat - it only happens when the temp needle sits a bit higher than usual).
I'm currently thinking just put the new belt on how this one is, thought it best to check though. Would the engine even run properly if it was 1 tooth out?

[whynot]

It does look out by a tooth on both cams to me. Is there an extra alignment mark on the cam gears that points to one on the other cam gear? I find lining up using those works easier for me. If they point at each other spot on and the TDC is in the right spot then you should be good to go.

[Mop]

Is there an extra alignment mark on the cam gears that points to one on the other cam gear? I find lining up using those works easier for me. If they point at each other spot on and the TDC is in the right spot then you should be good to go.

Nope, I had to pull the valve cover to get the vvti pulley off (leaky seal to replace) and thought there might be a mark on the camshafts but I can't see any there either

[sergei]

There will be an index on camshaft itself (will have to take cam cover off).

Blatantly stolen from here: http://www.mr2.com/ARTICLE/TimingBeltSW20.html

[rollaholic]

is it the original belt? possible the last person got it wrong.

are you sure its at TDC? i feel like there should be a corresponding mark somewhere for that one on the crank pulley, though i havent done a 3S belt in a long time. if you turned it back a fraction it looks like the cam sprocket marks would both line up pretty well.

do these things have an adjustable CAS or something? if it is timed wrong, they might have fiddled that to get it to run better. are the sprockets themselves adjustable, like some VVT type systems are?

reading between the lines it sounds like you have a whole other problem going on with the cooling system.

[Mop]

Thanks for the help, no marks on the cam shafts but I worked out that the crank was out by 1 tooth - whoever did it last mucked it up. There are actually helpful arrows and lines on a new belt which assist in getting everything lined up.

Still can't get the radiator fan to come on when it should, does anyone know if the sensor/switch in the bottom of the radiator should read open or closed when the coolant temperature is <85 deg? I have just replaced it with a new one from toyota but it reads open (no continuity) at all times, same as the old one (which I assumed was faulty). Bridging the connector which plugs into it causes the passenger side fan (the deeper one - I thought this one was for the AC?) to run full bore so I'm wondering if it should be open when <85deg and closed when >90 deg?
Both fans go when the AC compressor kicks on and the fan relays all click when 12v is applied, not sure if the right pins are switched on relay no. 2 as I can't find a diagram for it and it is a 5 pin relay. Relays 1 and 3 switch fine though.

[85AW20v]

Could be the block sensor that's crook, a broken wire from the sensor or the sensor not connected to anything seeing as everything else seems to work....

[Mop]

Replaced the coolant sensor in the block about 6 months ago, unplugging it changes how the engine runs and drops the temp gauge needle which makes sense to me.
I'm starting to wonder if the radiator sensor was ok and maybe the radiator is clogged - not getting the hot coolant circulating in that corner? I did just empty and fill the system about 10 times with water, only through the drain plug though. Might put the end of the sensor in a pot of boiling water to check it out.

[matt dunn]

Still can't get the radiator fan to come on when it should,

Are you sure that you know when it should come on?

I have seen cars at work that require over 100deg on the live data for the radiator fans to come on.


make sure that when you are running it that both top and bottom hose feel to get warm,
and then run with the cap on and watch the temp gauge on the dash.
Usually they will have to move a bit up from normal but not into the red before the fans will come on.

[Mop]

The short answer is no

Both hoses get warm, the needle looks about right (just under halfway) when moving at a decent rate, sitting in traffic or idling in the driveway it creeps up higher (over halfway) and the engine starts to struggle a bit at idle - I think the ECU is trying to compensate for too much heat with fuel trim perhaps.

Switch should turn on at 90 or 95 degrees from what I've read, I'll test it when I have time to pull the splash cover off and get it out again.