Rotating an engine backwards

[Ronbo]

With a wrench or hands of course, what are the consequences? Can it cause the timing chain to skip?


Ron

 

[early ford fan]

the worse thing that will happen is the harmonic ballancer bolt may loosen.

 

[ludwig]

Take the plugs out and remove all the driver belts to reduce the resistance. Then turn it backwards by pulling on the balancer. It has a keyway to keep it in place. If the balancer has holes around the center shaft, maybe you can rig up something that has posts and a lever to pull on those.

 

[Ronbo]

Whats going on is I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem I have. One of the things I did while adjusting the valves was rotate the engine backwards, I then brought it forwards to where I needed it. I think by coincidence I picked up a really bad vacuum leak when I installed the new rocker assy. I tried carb spray AND propane to no avail. I keep wondering if I have the valves just a tad too tight? But really, I believe somehow, I picked up a leak somewhere. You know how pesky they can be to find I have to put way too much initial timing into it to get it to run right, the last time I had to do that the carb was shot.

Ron

 

[fordconvert]

Turning the motor backwards should not hurt anything especially on the motors we deal with here. Some more recent motors have tension devices on the chains or belts and I suppose in theory if they were very worn perhaps you could skip a tooth. If the carb was working before you adjusted the valves I would say the valves are your problem.