I know, I do this all the time, but it's nice to get confirmation or fix what's wrong.  

 

So whats the problem.

Good.  I just wanted confirmation they are right.

Spin it twice and of they still line up you're good to go.

It's off by a tooth somewhere I'm fairly certain.  Going to retime it in a moment.

I did a tooth COUNT as well on my WRX.

Ah! I sees the problem!

 

Its a tooth problem alright... Looks like two teeth off

Unfortunately all the marks don't always line up exactly in my experience . Particularly on the cam pulleys.

Its probably too late but but what helps is to mark your old belt against the the marks you'd made on the cams / crank pulley / case timing marks

Then take a note of cam pulleys / case marks on how they line up (position) [ BEFORE taking old belt off]

Then compare timing marks on the belts (side by side / old vs new) to see if they match before fitting new belt (ie same corresponding number of teeth between marks)

If the white marks you made? on the cam pulleys are correct? - then agree perhaps its a tooth out on each of the cam pulleys (2 teeth out)

Agree with doing this also:

Spin it twice and of they still line up you're good to go.

Then do a quick start up / run for 10 seconds or so to see if ok to make sure, before putting back together.

Make sure all cam belt pulleys etc are in place / tightened / pin pulled to set tensioner etc before doing this.

I do this with no radiator / cooling system nor other drive belts in place.

Edited July 12, 201510 yr by subnz

When your doing an engine swap with an engine that didn't have a belt on it there is no way to align the marks

 

The problem was probably never timing though. After retiming it twice the crank sprocket stopped in a spot where I noticed two teeth missing.....

what is the tooth count for that engine? (44.5 x 42 ???)

 

tooth count doesn't care if the belt is marked (or even on backwards) or if the tensioner pin has been pulled. Just put the cam marks near the notch on the back cover with the crank sprocket near its mark. Count the teeth from the crank pulley's mark to the cam's mark.

Edited July 12, 201510 yr by 1 Lucky Texan