Help with timing, piston position, and turning crankshaft

[sideshow]

A technical question:

After timing belt failure, I am putting re-built heads on a '97 Subaru Legacy GT 2.5L and am about to put the new timing belt on. I mistook the marks on the crank-shaft pulley (outside of timing belt cover) for Top Dead Center and now see on the crankshaft sprocket inside the belt covers, that I'm off by 90 degrees. According to the markings on the sprocket, I need to turn it 90 clock-wise to bring it to true top dead center. The heads are already on, but none of the cams are exerting any pressure on the valve lifters yet.

My question is, can I turn the crank 90 degrees without the belt on? I'm new to this forum and I wish I had found you guys about 3 weeks ago: I've been doing everything with just a Haynes Manual, which didn't even tell me which cylinder was #1. I definitely don't want to screw it up now that I'm almost done, but from what I can tell, without the valves being depressed into the cylinder, turning the engine 90 degrees shouldn't matter, right? The tops of (what I believe to be pistons 1 & 3) are both all the way up to the head/block seam where the head gasket goes.

I'd appreciate advice.

Thanks

[1-3-2-4]

Guessing your motor is the DOHC?

I agree haynes is not really any help.. what you need is the factory service manual I think you can find the link to it someplace in the DIY section here.

Also check my sig for pistons/ firing order.

[decke48]

on subarus you dont actully line #1 to TDC on timing belts. on the crank you have two marks a triangle and a line, either on the front of the gear or on the timing humps. the line gets aligned to the mark on the block and the triangle is at 90 degrees (pointing to 3 oclock). if you dont have you belt on and the cams are aligned to the timing marks and there is no pressure on the valve you can spin the engine all you want since the valve are seated.

[Bdubs]

Here are some photos and a good writeup, perhaps this will help you a little. http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/pd ... ctbelt.pdf (http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/pdf/engine/dohctbelt.pdf)

[track8]

I ran into that exact thing while doing my 2.5. As long as the valves are not open all the way (not on top of the cam lobes) you should be able to turn the crank wherever you need to. I actually assembled mine like that and slowly turned it 'till it stopped. Had to look at the manual like 30 times to notice the 2 different marks.

Didn't bend any valves though, whew.