Forgive my noobness, I am new to this level of auto repair but I am trying to learn. I have a 08 accord EXL and decided to open my valve cover recently to do some inspection of the engine as I bought it recently. I checked timing and see if I have the updated VTC actuator (I have startup rattle). Turns out my timing chain tensioner is fucked, with something in it broken. Gonna replace it with a new oem part. Timing is slightly off, cam tdc has crank about half an inch off of tdc.When I was putting it back together, I rushed a little because I needed the car soon and stripped 2 valve cover when trying to torque it down (was tightening each one slightly going around all 6 bolts and didnt realise 2 were spinning).
So my questions are: Can I time the engine by setting cam TDC, taking timing chain off cam, setting crank to TDC, put chain back on cam, place in new tensioner, turning crank a few times to verify timing, readjust if wrong. I realise it likely wouldnt be perfect but would be better than what its like currently? I would also like to avoid taking off the timing cover if I can...
Another question is do i need to take off the cams down to the cylinder head in order to helicoil the threads? I tried looking up someone doing it on this engine and couldnt find basically any information. But it seems like it goes: remove camshaft bolts, take off both the top and bottom camshaft assembly, helicoil threads on cylinder head, reinstall camshaft assembly, then im good?
Let me know if these plans are wrong, again sorry for my noobness.
