1988 Acura Integra timing marks

Maintenance/Repairs
1

On the show this week a caller had trouble installing a timing belt on a 1988 Acura Integra. Ray thought it was a belt tension problem, but the caller also seemed confused how to align the timing marks on the crank pully and each of the dual overhead cams. He seemed confused which marks to use.

I did this timing belt alignment on my Toytota Corolla and didn’t have any problem or confusion aligning the marks. I just put the crank pully at #1 TDC, and then set the cam mark next to it’s index mark.

The caller said he was confused because there were three marks, and he didn’t know which one to use. I’m not sure which of the three pulleys he means that had three marks. Why would there be more than one mark anyway?

Anyway, is aligning the timing marks more difficult on the Integra than the Corolla? Just curious. What do you think?

2

That would be the crank pulley. The 3 marks are for advanced/retarded timing applications. Normal use, you aim for the center mark (which is painted red from the factory as opposed to the other 2, which are white - - not that this usually matters - the paint is usually worn off long before anyone needs to use them).

3

On both civics i’ve had the harmonic balancer has two sets of marks. One is for ignition timing(three marks) and the other for TDC, It sounded like he was using the first set of marks(which would be the three for ignition timing) But on many Honda/Acuras you have to remove the balancer to replace the timing belt, so I’m not sure why he didn’t just use the TDC mark on the block and crank sprocket.