348 engine out major

The reason there wasn't enough slack was because, the groove in the block for, the stop pin on the back of the tensioner, wasn't long enough to allow the tensioner to be compressed all the way down. The pin was stoping it.

So what I had to do was, remove the tensioner housing from the block. There was a hole machined into the front of housing for a set screw (you can see the screw just under the bearing). With the tensioner housing placed on the floor, I put all of my weight on it, to compress the bearing all the way down. While holding the bearing fully compressed I tightened the set screw.

I then went back and reinstalled the bearing to the block, now that it was down all the way.
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I screwed down the tensioner just enough to leave a small gap between the block and the back of the bearing. I didn't want the stop-pin to hit the block and cause issues.

Here's a pic to show what I'm talking about. It's kind of hard to see because I couldn't get a clear pic.
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NOW I had enough slack in the belt to get it fed over the bearings and all the pulleys.
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With the timing belt installed I loosened the set screw, releasing the tensioner bearing.
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With the tensioner released the stop-pin on the back of it, was now up far enough to fit in the groove in the block. Now I could tighten down the nuts fastening the tensioner housing to the engine.
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The retaining bolt was then threaded in. But I didn't tighten it.
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Hey Ernie- great thread. Was the set screw there specifically for this purpose or is this something you had to MacGyver? Looks like you had to add it just for this purpose.

 

Or you can avoid all that and just take any pulley off any cam and then put the belt on the cog and it will fit right on the snout of the shaft, then put the bolt back in.

 

I gave the engine a couple of rotations first, clockwise of course. With a socket and wrench on the crank I turned the crank, always rotating clockwise, until I got all the slack out of the belt I could see. With pressure still being applied to the belt, to keep it taught, I tightened down the retaining bolt. Then some more rotations of the crank to make sure the belt was nice and tight.

I let the force of the spring pushing on the tensioner bearing do all the work. That and I don't have a fancyschmancy Staeger tensioning gauge to check it with.
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The hole was already there.

 

And now to double check my cam marks.

This one is good.
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This one looks a hair off, and will need to be adjusted.
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This one is good.
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And this one is good.
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Ernie this is the most complete step by step write up, thanks for your time and effort you put in photographing, the question I have is puting retaining dowel through the cam hole without locking the cams before putting the belts on is not going to move the cams.
Thanks, Sark

 

These cams have NOT been timed yet. This is only how they lined up after I put the pulleys back on and fit the dowels into the holes.

 

Yes the cams can move, so it is best to lock the cams in place.

 

This is the part of my WHOLE engine out that had me spitting nails.

It was adjusting that ONE cam mark to get it spot on. To make a long story short, I fitted the cam pulley to the cam so that I didn't have enough holes to adjust the pulley. all I needed was just ONE MORE hole, and didn't have it. Meaning, I had to remove the pulley and readjust it on the cam so I had enough dowel holes to play with. Yes it was a headache.

EVENTUALLY…… I got that cam right on the marks, as the rest of them where, with the engine at TDC.

 

In the past I would have just called it a day. The engine was on TDC and the cams were on there marks.

But where exactly did Ferrari mark these cams? Hmmmmmmm???

Shall we see?

 

With the cams NOW all on the factory marks, and the degree wheel on top dead center, it was now time to see just how well my cams were marked.
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Before positioned the dial indicator over the exhaust valve, inserted a dowel to the end of my dial pointer. With the dowel in place I put the tip of it on the top of the cam follower of the exhaust valve.
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Then I adjusted the dial indicator so it was showing .400" of lift. The reason I did it this way is because, when the cam starts opening the valve the indicator will show the lift in a decreasing fashion. The exhaust cam has about .324" of lift, so .400" will be plenty of room to move.
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A double check to make sure the exhaust cam is right on it's marks. (These is the cam that I put the pulley on a hair off, which got adjusted).
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The book says to set the valve lash to .50mm/.020" inches. So what I did was rotate the engine until the dial indicator read .020". In the picture it's the red numbers, because the dial is spinning backwards from 0.
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With the dial indicating .020" of lift, I had a look at the degree wheel to see where the crank was in the rotation. 54º before bottom dead center.
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