Quick cam sprocket alignment question
 

I had to remove my cam gears to get to the front thermostat housing, but forgot to mark the orientation of the dowels in relation to the cam gears. I don't think my cams have rotated more than a few degrees, but I'd just like to be 100% sure.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1423439442

I should be able to just reassemble like this photo and be aligned, right? Dowels at 12 o'clock, and I/E at TDC on both sides?

Looks correct. Just be sure the crank TDC marking is dead-nuts, it's pretty easy to be one tooth off down there once you get the belt tensioned. Here's mine:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1423444430IMG_4855.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr

Thanks!

That was a pain in the ass, but I think I got it. Offsetting the crank a half a tooth seemed to help the belt go on.

Cool, glad you got it!

I found that keeping the tensioner pulley off made it easier to get the belt on the sprockets, but it also made it easier to mess up the TDC positioning. 6 and 1/2 dozen sort of thing.

So I think I may have got a bad belt, it doesn't seem to want to run loose enough to not whine like a supercharger. I've verified it's just the TB by removing everything that could possibly make the noise, but it still whines.

I've done the 1 5/6 turns to the tension mark, I've tried miatamecca's youtube video of turning the intake cam to put the slack on the tensioner side. I've even tried prying the idler looser without the spring and whine, whine, whine...

Grrr....

hmmm. My blue belt has been a bit whiny but just running the car while I'm tuning my cold-start, warm-up, and idle, the whining timing belt has noticeably quieted over perhaps the hour or so of actual run-time.