I understand what timing is the timing belt ties the crank gear to the cam gears. There are timing marks on all 3. The cam gears time the cams so that the lobes are in the correct position & therefore valves in the correct position at the correct time in correlation to position of the position in each cylinder. There is a cam for intake valves and a cam for exhaust valves that is why there are 2 cams. The crank drives the pistons and that is why they are all tied together so that internals are synchronized. There are 2 strokes I believe exhaust and intake so it takes 2 full revolutions to go through one filling timing cycle in this motor where the pistions will be at TDC twice. Once for combustion (intake stroke) and once to remove exhaust (exhaust stroke). Valves must be open / closed at the right time in order for this to happen. BTW I totally destroyed the refurbished cylinder head. On the fense about ordering another one. I can time a motor when the timing marks on the sprockets are accurate but removing the sprockets and reinstalling then without understanding the cam orientation is where I got confused. If I give this another shot I will need to understand that before I can successfully compete this
That's mostly correct. There are 4 strokes.
Each stroke is 180 degrees of the crankshaft and 90 degrees of the camshafts.
The intake stroke, where the piston goes down and the intake valve opens drawing air and fuel into the cylinder through the motion of the stroke and then closes at the bottom.
The compression stroke, where the piston goes up and all valves are closed in that cylinder. The air fuel mixture is compressed during this stroke.
The power stroke, where the spark plug fires and ignites the air fuel mixture causing the piston to go down. This stroke is what give all of the pistons motion when the starter is not in use. All the valves in the cylinder are still closed in this stroke.
The exhaust stroke, where the exhaust valve opens and the piston moves up pushing the exhaust out of the cylinder. The exhaust valve closes at the end of this stroke.
And then the entire process is repeated to complete the cycle.
The cam gears do not determine the position of the cams. From the picture you displayed, The bar that you put in the back of the cams do. There is only
one combination that the bar will fit correctly into the cams without resistance. That position is the correct positioning at TDC. Then you put the cam gears on and line them up with the marks
without moving the cams. If the cams move at all while you are tightening down the cam gears the timing will be off.
Does that make sense? If not there are videos on YouTube that you can watch.