How's my timing! and Cam Tensioner Ball

[Tom Z]

Gentlemen,
I took the head off my 68' 280 due to a bad head gasket. (FYI took it to Keener's  in Palm Beach Fl. 561 686 6134 who did a excellent job pressuring testing, surfacing, and cleaning all the parts) I didn't bring the motor to TDC and I can't find a procedure for timing the fuel pump / distributor ,the cam has the dot to aline with the cam tower and the crank has a pointer but they all talk about pump install at 20 deg. Can anyone shed some light ? And what is the size of the bolt head on the crankshaft pulley(so I can bring her to TDC)! To add to my dilemma After taking the cam tensioner apart I lost or never had a ball behind the spring and plastic cup inside the tensioner! can someone also tell me the size of this ball?

[glenn]

Be careful of turning the cam shaft independent of the crank.  If the rocker arms are in, the valves are going to meet the pistons.  Take the rocker arms out(label), turn crank to TDC with dizzy at no. 1,  rotate cam to notch, put rockers back, prime tensioner, etc, etc

[ja17]

Hello Tom,

Most of the time we set the engine at TDC #1 before removing the head since it is very difficult to check the injection pump timing with the injection pump in place. You can get the IP timing 180 degrees off if you are not aware where the IP is situated when you remove the head. The #1 piston comes to the top of its stroke two times and the injection pump squirts fuel only one of these times. If you get it 180 degrees off the engine will not quite run or idle correctly. I have a procedure to tell where your IP is situated while on the engine if yours is dis-oriented at this point. Otherwise remove the IP and start from scratch.

The procedure to align the IP, cam and distributor from scratch is .............Set #1 piston at TDC "0" at the crankshaft pointer rotate engine in the normal rotation.      ( with rocker arms off as mentioned) Turn the cam sprocket until the slot in the cam washer is at the mark on the cam tower. The slot cam be a little late coming to the mark on the tower, it should never be early. Each link in the chain is equal to 18 degrees of cam timing. Always turn in the engine in the normal direction of rotation. After the cam is in sync and the chain is re-attached, install the distributor so that the rotor points to the #1 slash mark on the distributor rim. The distributor orientation can be changed by lifting the drive gear and rotating it to the desired position. Be careful the slot in the drive gear and the cog on the bottom of the distributor are very slightly off set .Be sure to orient them correctly. Forcing them together at 180 degrees off will cause severe distributor wear.

At this point you have the cam, distributor and crankshaft in time. Next turn the engine in the normal direction of rotation another 20 degrees (20 degrees after top dead center). With the injection  pump removed, align the marks on the end of the injection pump and slide it into to place and secure it. Rotate the engine by hand TWO revolutions and re-check all your marks.

You can move this thread out of the "interior " category you will get more comments.

[glenn]

The world is great when everything is in sync..!!!...

[wwheeler]

Just out of curiosity, I always hear to turn the engine in the normal direction of rotation. Don't all of the M130s and it's brothers rotate in the same direction? I didn't know if there are special versions that rotate in the other direction. 

[glenn]

Didn't dual Chrysler marine engines rotate in opposite directions??

[Tom Z]

Didn't dual Chrysler marine engines rotate in opposite directions??

Yup Chrysler,Ford,Chevrolet,even Mercedes gas when you find them on the port that's left side of a boat without counter rotating gears, transmissions that is! Detroit diesels also were made counter rotating but those were weed whacker's two stroke! Most all low RPM diesels 800RPM and slowerFiat's,old Atlas's and Amsterdam's,  are direct reversible which turn both ways,, depending which way you want to go!

[wd]

My antique boat has a reverse rotation 426 Chrysler. I wish it still had the original old Kermath.  I have seen pictures of that old engine and wow what a beauty.

[jacovdw]

...After taking the cam tensioner apart I lost or never had a ball behind the spring and plastic cup inside the tensioner! can someone also tell me the size of this ball?

Hello Tom,

Unfortunately I can't provide you with the size of the ball in the chain tensioner, but only a part number: N005 401 305 000
These should still be available if you order it through your local Mercedes dealer.

[graphic66]

To reverse rotation you just need  to change the cam, any 4 stroke engine will run either way depending on the cam and two stroke motors just need to be timed differently, some 2 stroke snowmobiles have a moving stator that causes the engine to run backwards for reverse.

[glenn]

Do you have to move the tensioner to the other side of the head and engine...??..??