im trying to find the timing marks on the cam gears on my 960 i think i might've found the one on the exaust cam, but i cant find anything on the intake side.
so any ideas? i added a picture of the cam gears when the crankshaft is in time. but the cams are obviously off cause the car will barely run.

I would use the white marks. It will not run if the cam was off 13 teeth, it would bend valves. Move the crank one tooth. you'll see. That mark on the other picture is not the cam timing mark. If you can't get it, don't mess around with it any more. You will bend some valves. If the one tooth does not fix the problem, then bite the bullet for the Volvo shop, or dealer to use the alignment tool for the back of the cams, then loosen the cam gears and realign to proper spot. About 3 hours and a good running engine. If not, be prepared for the worse, new valves and a head job.

Hello, Your timing is off one tooth on the crank, put a little white out on the top of spline of the crank gear, that should be perfect with the little line on the oil pump. Turn the engine untill cam gears are in the right spot and then take the tensioner off and recompress, move crankshaft back to the align marks and install tensioner. Good luck

Looking at your pictures carefully it appears that if your crank is indeed set at its timing mark then the exhaust cam is off by about 13 teeth. If this were the case the engine would not run and being an interference engine the valves would quite likely smash into the pistons. Judging by the various markings on the pulley it may be that a hack mechanic removed the pulley(s) and lost track of where to put them back. They must go back in the same holes and be exactly aligned in the slotted pulley holes. He then may have got it running by trial and error.

There just has to be a mark somewhere on the intake pulley, that's the only way they make em. Not sure what the M means, but mine is the same. (I have my V90 apart at the moment doing a head job)

If a pulley is removed to install cam shaft seals for example it is essential to mark the exact pulley to cam relationship. Once the correct position of a pulley is lost the only way I know to time cam to pulley correctly is with a Volvo tool which engages a slot at the rear of the camshaft to hold it in the correct position while the pulley is installed and aligned to it's mark. This is not easy because of the tight space at the rear. It is not a normal service procedure and should rarely if ever need to be done unless new cam or pulley is being installed.

Do you have a fault code? Could it be that timing is correct but some other problem is causing the poor running. What are the symptoms.
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David Hunter

yes i have a fault code, but its for the oxygen sensor.
the symptoms are: poor idling, lack of power in the lower rpm's, poor vacuum, which effects the power breaks (and caused me to total it earlier this week).
and i know its not a vacuum leak, because i've already checked everything on that system. it has equal compression on all cylinders (around 180psi when i last checked it).

If you are convinced that the timing of the pulleys to cams is off there is only one way to get it correct, use the timing tool. I guess you do have good reason to suspect this. It's hard to believe that someone would do that to an engine.

I would keep the possibility in mind that there may be something else going on. I should think that if the vacume was so low that power brakes are affected then how would the engine even run? Have you checked the small vacume tree with multiple vacume connections down the right hand side of the throttle body, it is common source of leaks.

Curious, if you totaled the car why are you concerned with the engine?
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David Hunter

Hi:

On the weekend, I helped a friend change his timing belt on a 1997 960 and the marks were easily seen on the face of the cam. They looked like a small chisel mark next to the outer edge. I can't see anything like that in the picture but they are quite small. I notice the white dots. Are they yours?

Gary

the white dots are made by the local volvo dealer mechanic, who had the car so far off time the previous owner was convinced the engine was bad, thats how i got the car.
and i do see one mark in the exaust cam gear. ill post a picture of just that.
do you know if the "m" marks on the cam gears mean anything?

If your crank is srtaight up on the mark I would say look very closly at those white marks and see if ther aren't some very fine lines under them.
Hope that helps
Poolman