Sorry for the long post but this really has me

Ok, I've been fixing quads full time now for the last 7 years, have done many top end rebuilds. And I am a licensed auto tech for the last 30 so I am absolutely familiar with the "four" strokes of an engine and where the cams should be in relation to where the piston is.

So here is my couple WTF's with this engine. Customer brings me this quad with a no start. He bought it this way and previous owner said the timing was off. I think they tried messing with it. Hmmm. So I check compression and get Zero PSI. I pull the valve cover off and check timing marks. They look right. Lines on the cams even with the top of the head and the "I" towards the intake port and the "E" towards the exhaust port on both cam gears. Hmm. Do a leakdown test and don't hear any obvious air escaping. Drained the coolant and there was a small amount of oil floating in the coolant and the rubber on the rad cap and thermostat was all swollen and efffed up from oil.

Ok, must be a head gasket or cracked head. I pull the head of and I do see evidence of the gasket leaking compression into 1 coolant port. Do not see any cracks in the head. Ok, there is where the oil is coming from in the coolant and where the compression is going. I look at the cylinder and see some scratches and scuff marks. So possibly some compression leaking there also. I tell the customer we might as well replace piston and rings (since we are torn down this far) and have the cylinder checked and honed at a machine shop. All is good there.

So I get all the parts and put things back together. I have the factory service manual and followed it. Here is the first WTF. In the manual it says to line up the cam drive idler gear with the crank tdc mark in the "window" by the pull start, and the cam gear with the dot lined up with the mark on the head. Check. Next it says to line up the cams with the lines parallel to the top of the head, BUT, it makes no mention of the "I" and the "E" marks on the gears. I naturally assume "I" towards the intake port and "E" towards the exhaust port. I also checked in several other forums and everyone says "I" to intake and "E" to exhaust. Ok check.

So before putting everything else together I check compression. I get ZERO! WTF? Checked all timing marks ten times and all are dead on. After another hour of I check to see exactly when the valves are opening and closing in relation to where the piston is in the cylinder. I find the intake is opening when the piston is coming up on what should be the compression stroke but the exhaust is opening and closing at the right time. I'm like hmm timing problem. After more investigating I determine the intake cam is out 180. So I turn it 180, lines even with head, and now I have compression, and the valves are opening and closing at the right time now. BUT, now the "I" on the intake cam is towards the exhaust port and the "E" on the exhaust cam is toward the exhaust port

It's like the "I" and "E" marks on the intake cam are stamped opposite of where they should be. I haven't put the rest together yet to see how it runs (should run fine), but wanted to run this by you guys first. Anyone ever run across this or am I missing something completely obvious because my brain is
Thanks for reading.

Kel

 

Anybody??

 

In for any answers, but I got nothing.

 

Ok, update!

As I said in my first post it seems like the "I" and "E" marks on the intake cam are wrong. This is indeed true. Normally the "I" should be towards the intake and the "E" towards the exhaust. I did that but had no compression. I turned the intake cam 180 degrees so now the "I" is toward the exhaust and the "E" is toward the intake, and now it runs fine. So there is still a wtf here. Maybe someone has put a cam in from a different engine I don't know but if this helps someone else then good.

 

Have any update?

 

I'm waiting for an update too! Probably the 12yr old in the factorys last day at work, and knows just enough about valve train to press on the gears 180 deg off figuring in a month his boss will get 500 cams returned defective. Laughing all day running the press, Ill show them for paying me six bucks a day!

 

I had big problems with a 700 valve timing due to the owner running it short of oil and a cam seizing, when it freed off the gear had moved round on the cam, so although the marks on the gears agreed with the mark on the flywheel, the cam was well out of time. Anyway, just noticed kelpaso honed the bore when he had the engine down, this will render the block scrap, as the bore is teflon coated, that's why you can't re-bore them.

 

Wouldn't happen to have any pictures of what the cams looked like after being timed ??
Iam having problems now with only 60 lbs of compression. Did the valves with new rings to. But still the same

 

Afraid not but the tiny marks on the camshaft itself have to line up with those on the gear.

 

I have had a situation where the keyway has sheared on the end of the crank and allowed the timing to adjust up tp 220 degrees out . Normally if the engine has been hydraulic locked at any point.