88pagan wrote on 09/27/08 at 06:33:22:Just an update...I've ordered about every gasket, o-ring, washer, cam chain, blah blah blah...got the new cylinder re-honed and now just waiting for the shop to bead blast the cylinder and head on monday. As soon as the new piston rings arrive I shall start reassembly Sooo, anyone have any tips or important suggestion before I start this process?? I've read through all the tech posts I could over and over and have gone over the Clymers manual several times. Am I missing something or is reassembly really not that difficult? Thanks to all that have helped so far.
I also posted this in your market place thread.
Assembly is pretty well straight forward and simple. The tricky part is getting the cam and gear in. But if you wrestle with it a few minutes it will go in. Just remember to have the piston at TDC and you line up the cam timing marks level with the top of the head. The orientation of the lobes will have the intake lobe just about to open the intake valve which is what you want because the starter will turn the engine bringing the piston down to suck in the fuel.
For quite a while I had it where both lobes were pointing down and didn't think anything about it until I installed Lancer's performance cam. I had all kinds of trouble until I actually looked at the timing marks. I had the cam severally retarded until I figured it out.
The timing marks are a scribed line that runs straight across the very front of the cam. Make sure those are line up parallel with the top of the head and you will be timed correctly as long as the piston is at TDC.