Timing is Everything

Thanks to my excellent Hayes manual, I figured out what this timing stuff is all about. Timing is what coordinates the crankshaft and camshaft and in some cases the oil pump. It is controlled by the timing belt. When you take the timing belt off, the sprockets on the end of the cam and crank are free to move around independently and get out of sync. When you put the timing belt back on you have to line up the sprockets with timing marks, to get everything coordinated, then the belt goes back on and runs everything in time. If the timing is off, valves will open at the wrong time, the pistons could come up too soon and smack them, then we're in a whole world of hurt. So yeah, a little important.