Does anyone have a guide on how to align the passenger side timing belt on the 1.8 vvc?

The driver side (big belt, camshaft, water etc.) looks to be aligned OK, but the passenger side it looks to be a few teeth out?

The ones i have worked on are non vvc the cam sprockets are the same for inlet and exhaust and have two dowel holes and are marked for inlet and exhaust so one sprocket can be produced to do both this means the wrong marks will nearly line up can,t see all of both sprockets in picture cams could be 180 deg out try turning crank 360 deg then recheck

I you type rover k series cam sprocket in google images to pictures will show what i am trying to explain

On the VVC the cam pulleys on the water pump end are different, exhaust is flat and the inlet 'dished' so they're not interchangeable.

There are roll pins on the shafts to allow the pulleys to only fit one orientation - it's possible for these to get crushed and allow slight out of alignment.

To time the engine you TDC the crank pulley (as in your pic) lock the cam pulleys with the appropriate (using locking tool) marks lined up, fit the timing belt, then you line up the rear (VVC) exhaust pulley to match the inlet (with no VVC belt on the ex turns free but the in is fixed). Rotate engine (remove locking tools!) by hand 2/3 times and check all lines up ok.

To me what you have there looks ok as if you rotate the engine a teensy bit more the marks will line up. If you move the ex pulley one tooth either way it will deffo look wrong.

PM me your email, I have a guide for cylinder head swap which has info on this and also some of the official service guides which may help.

As Sidewinder says, I think the viewing angle is deceiving you a bit - need to get the camera angle slightly lower (or indeed your eye!) I think if the engine turns a very small amount you'll see the mark line up .

Have you checked the VVC mechs are timed too?
http://forum.mg-rover-freunde.de/index.php?topic=41246.0

I think you're right - the timing on the belts does seem OK, just needs careful alignment and eye angle.

On the flywheel side I may have a problem though.

According to a diagram for the 1.8 vvc flywheel alignment I found (see screenshot) when the engine is TDC, the two large holes that are separated by two small holes should be down at 80 and 110 degrees.

On my engine, when the engine is TDC (photo 1) the CKP is pretty much directly between the two large holes (red arrows in photo 2), so it appears to be some 90 degrees out of position.

Has anyone got any experience with this setup? Not really sure how this could be wrong as the flywheel as far as I can remember only go on one way. I'd like to confirm there is a problem here before I start taking things apart!

If it is wrong, how would I adjust is back into position, is there a guide available?

I recall reading something somewhere (sorry for lack of specifics!!) that the RAVE manual gives incorrect info on the crank sensor flywheel cut outs so if what you have posted is from RAVE it may well be wrong. If so, as you say, you can't really put the flywheel on wrongly so don't worry.

Set my crank to TDC as yours and took pics of CKP area. To me it looks same as yours slot-hole-(sensor)-hole-slot.

Mine is mems3 vvc but the flywheels are all the same.





Hope that helps.

(FYI white is just Tippex, v handy to make marks more visible on pulley and casing.)

Which CKP sensor you should have:
https://www.mgfcar.de/sensor/

Some info on CKP and flywheel angles etc.

http://tom-seven.stillgame.ch/wiki/doku ... gle_sensor

http://tom-seven.stillgame.ch/wiki/doku ... sensor_cas

I just noticed that the wires on your CKP plug are the opposite way round to mine, having looked into it a bit i'm fairly sure your wires going into that plug are the wrong way round!





Looking at diagrams it seems those two wires you have are configured for non-vvc cars.

Good eye Sidewinder

I'll see if I can swap the wires temporarily to see if that helps, and double check the pin outs. It's a vvc loom with all the original connectors, so I dont see why the setup would be different but cant help to check!

I dont understand if the flywheel is supposed to be different. Some say they're all the same but others are saying mems 2 should have a different pattern. These parts are original from the donor as far as I'm aware.

If the timing and flywheel are correct, sensors are tested and working, why the hell wont the dam thing start

If you have a diagnostics plug* maybe you could bet this https://pscan.uk/index.html - bit expensive but it might help you figure out what's wrong.

*and given mems2 isn't ODBII compatible.

Sidewinder sir, you are a legend and if i ever see you i owe you a beer!!!

I swapped the crank wires using croc clips and low and behold she runs!

Rough as hell, but works!


Thank you everyone for your suggestions and advice. One happy Gerrard

Great news, glad you've made progress.

Might be just that it's not been run for a while, should smooth out as things bed in and ECU adapts - if it is that

You could try that reset TPS procedure where you switch on but don't start, pump throttle fully on then off five times and switch off, then start normally. Somat like that anyway.

Ran it half a dozen times and it has quietened down a lot already. After installing the clocks (in particular the water and oil temperatures) I was planning to bring it to temperature and make sure there aren't any head gasket issues before proceeding further.

Unfortunately it appears I have several water leaks to deal with first. The worst is from the pipes near the radiator at the front of in the tunnel - looking at the other aluminium pipes it looks like the original builder didn't bead them and I've disturbed them

Is it recommended to remove the radiator to get at them, otherwise it looks like removing the front clam and the front of the body or cutting the fibre glass underneath the pipes to get a hand on them.