Thread: TDV6 (2.7) Timing & TDC

Originally Posted by dscott2542

Hi all,

I hope we are all well. I have a bit of an issue I need help with if possible, please.

My timing belt tensioner went on my original engine and has resulted in some broken rollers and I am gathering bent/broken valves.

So I purchased a Ford Territory engine as a doner for this and I made a mistake while I was quite delirious one night. I have gone to adjust the timing belt on the cams, using the crank pulley (to get the timing pins out from the cam pullies) forgetting I had taken the timing belt off. This has led to taking the crank out of time with the heads and now I need to get them back into time.

Even more stupid, I didn't make a timing mark on the crank pulley before doing this.

I have not removed the flex plate off either engine yet as I am waiting to ensure the timing is correct before changing these out.

The main question is how do I go about ensuring the heads and crank are in time? I have been trying to find some YouTube resources to do this but I am having trouble finding anything.

Has anyone else done anything quite as stupid as this? And might anyone be able to point me in the right direction for a resource to retime the engine?

For context, when I did this I was coming down with a severe head cold and in my brain fog I managed to do this... while I was thinking I needed to add a mark on the crank just in case

I did that years ago on a FIAT. Trouble is, turning the crank when the cams didn't resulted in bent valves. Hopefully that is not the case with you. I imagine that with extreme care you could manipulate the whole thing back to where you need it to be. Good luck.

Christian gives a reasonably good demo in this vid... Of course, he is starting from where you want to be.

Originally Posted by Tins

I did that years ago on a FIAT. Trouble is, turning the crank when the cams didn't resulted in bent valves. Hopefully that is not the case with you. I imagine that with extreme care you could manipulate the whole thing back to where you need it to be. Good luck.

Christian gives a reasonably good demo in this vid... Of course, he is starting from where you want to be.

Thank you so much for the response! Thankfully, I only moved it perhaos 1/8th of a turn and have not completed any more rotation (I am practising on the already destroyed engine before doing anything to the new one). I hope that has not done any damage to the engine, but only time will tell.

Thank you for the resource as well... I love these two and have extensively followed their channel, I will have to look deepper into their work and hopefully figure out from them how to time this thing

You need the pin for the flywheel to set the position. It fits above the starter motor once you remove it first. Part of timing tool kit.

There’s no mark to use on the crank pulley which is not keyed to the crank either.

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

You need the pin for the flywheel to set the position. It fits above the starter motor once you remove it first. Part of timing tool kit.

There’s no mark to use on the crank pulley which is not keyed to the crank either.

Yep, line up the locking pin hole with in the bellhousing access hole, even if you dont have a locking pin in you will still be able to line it up.
Then lock the cams with suitable size drill bits or steel rod, make sure you get it right as even one pulley tooth out is enough to cause poor performance.

Depending how far you have moved it will depend on how you go lining up the crank timing hole..

The reason i say this is because there are several holes in the flex plate but when they try and line with the timing pin they are half a hole out.. only 1 will line up for the locking pin to slot in perfectly.. for this reason you would be better off getting the correct tool as the locking tool is stepped and it would be pretty easy if you dont have the correct tool to slot into the wrong hole on the flex plate..

Cheers Bulletman