whats the best way to adjust tension on belt and get the sprockets correct, I have the lines on the belt right on the punch mark dots of the sprockets but i'm meeting resistence when I rotate the belt clockwise ... sparkplugs are out, and does that mean that the valves are bumping the cylinders?

 

If the plugs are out then the engine should spin relatively freely. You've still got the valve springs adding a little resistance, but not enough to make it difficult to turn over by hand with a wrench. If you're hitting a stop, then STOP. Take the belt off and reverify that the engine is at TDC, both the crank and the cams.

 

how much tolerence do I have ... if everything is lined up, the #1 cylinder is all the way up (I check with a chopstick) ... I took off the belt readjusted 3 times. still some resistence I think from L3 cam, could it be something else

 

when you say resistance, do you mean it stops turning completely, or it gets really hard to turn, or that you can just feel a slight difference at that point??? If you spun the engine backwards at any point then there is a chance that you siphoned all the oil back to the pan and the bearings and what not are just not lubed. Also, try squirting a little oil into each cylinder and seeing if that helps.

Check to make sure nothing is obstructing the valvetrain...like a socket or something

 

ok I'm an idiot, I wasn't thinking ... I tried to do other stuff while I was trying to do the timing belt and I did an oil change because I thought I was going to have it running that day, well the oil goes in on the R3 cam side and the L3 cam side prob. has no oil at all (it's been a week or more) ... so do I have to take valve cover off squirt some oil in there and squirt some oil in the cylinders ... next time I'll pay the $700 + to get it done at nissan but now I'm knee deep in alligators and I'm wearing a meat suit.

 

help me please, anybody ... , bueller ... bueller

 

if it's all lined up, and you made sure the crank was at TDC why do you need to rotate it? As long as it's all lined up with the marks you should be able to go ahead and put it all back together.

 

to check if any resistence like the service manual says ... and since I just realized that I changed the oil on the car before I was done with the timing belt ... I prob. screwed myself by draining the oil from the crank and engine it's prob. dry as bone

 

Hmm, I never even checked if there was resistance after we did the timing belt on my 300ZX. Once we were done and had it lined up we just went ahead and put it back together. Didn't have any problems with it. I'd think you'd be ok just putting it back together and filling up the oil. I mean even if you turn the car off and let it sit for over a month or so pretty much all the oil would drain to the pan.

 

maybe I'm worrying over nothing, but I did fill the oil back up only the r3 side got some oil on the cam when i poured it in, it hasn't been started so all that oil is just sitting in pan and never went back up in the engine so could the resistence be the unoiled cylinders trying to go up and down ... also when you did it do you adjust the tension according to manual with 0.5 inch deflection at 22 ft lbs blah blah blah ... or did you fly by the seat of your pants

 

When we did it, we just had a my friend's uncle who's a mechanic and some of the things people told us online. All we did was make sure the sprockets were lined up with their marks and that the belt was lined up. Then we made sure the tensioner had enough tension on the belts, tightened it up then put it back together. I guess you could say we kinda winged it

 

turbo,just be easy,the z-31 is not so tempermental or weak that just by turning it over a few times without running is goin to scar the camsor ruin your cyl.walls.let the oil pump do its job,get the oil up on the rockers and fire that beast up!