OK, so the head gasket blew on my mom's Elantra. I changed it, and I kinda cheated on the timing belt... instead of stripping the whole front of the engine, I just removed the cam pulley and left the belt on.

When I reinstalled the cams, I did it to spec according to the manual I was using. I believe the repair manual said reinstall the cams with the #1 intake cam @ 90* angle from the mating surface.

The #1 piston was @ TDC.

The engine *should've* been in time...

I reinstalled the cam pulley with the belt, and then the tentioner. I don't think the belt was on 100% correctly though, as the front side of the belt seemed to have a lot more slack than the tentioned side.

When I attempted to start the car, it acted like it wanted to crank, but then it just kept turning over. I tried to turn it over a couple more times... No start. It doesn't even try to crank.

That's when I decided ok, I guess I'll have to time this right. After a google search, (how I found this forum) I read a post that this is an interference engine. So how bad did I screw this up?

 

That all depends on how far out of time you actually was..

The timing mark is TDC on the crank (mark on oil pump body and cog),,, mark for cam is a small hole and red line inside on cam cap (the hole is marked with red paint)..

 

Well, when I timed the pistons, I had the head off, so the piston was most def at TDC on the #1 cylinder.

The book said when you reinstall the cams, set #1 to TDC, and install the cams with the #1 intake cam facing 90* from the mating surface.

I didn't bother with the timing marks because the bottom of the belt was still on, and I knew for a fact that the #1 cylinder was @ TDC, and the cam was installed exactly where it needed to be.

I believe the slack on the front of the belt allowed it to get out of time far enough to not crank, but I hope it didn't get out far enough to smack the valves into the pistons...

I see that I'm going to have to redo this procedure correctly...

 

Log onto www.hmaservice.com, establish an account and look up the timing belt procedure for the car. You didn't say what vintage the Elantra was, so I can't be more specific.

 

I got a great response from these guys. They have an "ask a tech" section that helped me through coil troubles

http://www.columbushyundainews.com/