Thread: SR20 in a boat/SR20de cam issues

Hi Guys

Greetings from New Zealand. SR20's are popular engines out here for use in jet boats. These are small aluminium hulls 10-12 foot long. The SR20 is hooked up to a single stage jet unit (DE) or a very beefy single stage or a two stage unit (SR20DET). Here's a couple of examples





Anyhow I have a recently acquired an older glass jet hull with a 97 S14 SR20de RWD in it hooked up to a single stage. It is a project boat I hope to transfer the running gear to a new aluminium hull within the next year as funds allow. On startup there was some top end noise which vanishes as soon as the engine warms up. I picked it for a sticky lifter. I pulled the cam cover and was saddened to see rust on the camshaft lobes. I managed to pick up a set of mint S14 cams and I will swap them for the rusty ones.

I plan to use the wooden block method to block the cam chain as per the JWT instructions

My first question is.... the notches in the wedge what function do they perform. is it important to cut them to an exact side? Is that diagram to scale?

As the engine is installed in a boat and space is limited this is the preferred option over pulling the tensioner out, so will give it a go.....

The wood keeps the chain slack tight against the crank gear down below so when you are installing and removing the cams, the chain will not slack off the crank gear and leave the timing FUBAR. Those units are in inches so you can easily convert from inches to mm or cm for your wooden block.

I have and have not removed the tensioner for installing cams and I don't see that as a necessary part of the ordeal. It does remove some slack on the intake side. Maybe JWT invented the guide to stop from removing the tensioner, I really do not know, but I have not seen a difference removing vs not removing the tensioner.

What is this? There is no post other than Kyle's response.

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