I was putting 351 kit and didnt check how well cams have been aligned originally. However after assembly I discovered that alignment is not perfect when T-mark is in place. Bike has 35000k on the clock. Is it because chain is stretched and I need to replace it or something else? Please have a look -

 

I painted mine before i took it apart, and my thought was to just put it back where it was. Then i thought, what if it skipped a tooth on the lower sprocket. So i ignored them when putting it back together. It ended up lining up again anyway.... here is what it looked like on mine.

 

Assuming your at tdc, and not the ignition timing mark
? It maybe from a thicker gaskets? Slider shoe not in right?, ..chain stretch would have the mark off the other direction.

 

marking it with a little bit of nail polish helps before you disassemble...ems' photo is exactly how it should look when on the "t"....if you have any doubts, start counting the pins from IN mark on to EX mark....32 pins exactly...

 

I think we've talked about this before, but don't most of us find the final orientation not to be dead-on-perfect as far as alignment to the head's gasket surface when full reassembled? Now, I think you can align the marks on the cam gears to the head and then slightly back up the crank and then actually reacquire the TDC mark again. Seems like there's a tiny bit tolerance in the valve train between the crank and cams due to the tensioner, sliders, and rubbing blocks. And remember there's another spring loaded secondary tensioner device on the cam chain below the regular tensioner. There's a lot of crap going on in the cam chain drive on this bike.

 

my valve clearance were off by about 0.02 mm to 0.04 mm...after new valve shims and putting the cams and cam chain back on, the markings weren't dead on (just a guide to about where it should be), but pretty darn close...i did count the pins to be 100% sure that it was on correctly...

 

My markings were not dead on either. You should check your cam chain length against the spec to see if it needs replaced.

 

Thanks guys! Thanks for pictures, they are very helpful! As I see main is close to what most people have. It does have 32 pins. I am not worrying anymore

 

when I replied I was viewing on my phone and missed alexgg pic, lame excuse I know.

So my comment was on EMS's big pic which I gather was just to show his red markings. The right slash on the exh sprocket looks too far off , but maybe it;s the angle of the pic or he wasn''t at tdc ?

 

well, his red markings are not related to alignment. Ex/In are the same as I have. when at TDC.