Need help, please read!
 

Ok, here's the deal i'm putting my engine back together from an head gasket replacement. I'm currently trying to put my camshaft gears back on the cams with the timing chain on them. I don't seem to have enough slack on the chain to put both gears on. Both tensioners are off the head. Am I doing something wrong or has anyone else encountered this problem, please help, thanks.

wow, im in the exact same position. but i also cant figure out how to reset the timing. my book tells me about the little crankshaft TDC thing but i cant find out where that is. if you kno how to set the timing up or the answer to his question please speak up!!! im thinking our timing chains may be all bunched up in the bottom and we need to take the bottom half of the timing cover off to make things more visable.

You have to manually rotate the crankshaft pulley with a 22mm socket and ratchet. There's a little tick mark on one of the teeth you have to look for and an arrow on the crankcase cover. Both have to be aligned for the engine to be at TDC. Sorry if I confuse you. Maybe someone else can explain better.

so the crank pulley has to be off? i think i get it better than my dumb chilton book that tells me to locate some whole that i swear is not there. lol. i wanna just gonna stick something in cylinder one and turn it untill it peak in height but i thought that was wrong. then i read on in my book and it said to do that if u had an aftermarket flywheel. i'm already home from the shop now! 2moro i'm driving home from the d@#n place i swear!

You should be able to put them on by placing the chain on the sprockets, then putting the sprockets on the cam.
Make sure the chain is laying in the grooves on the crank sprocket, too. It's something you have to feel for... hard to see. It's possible the chain has gotten jammed between the crank sprocket and the housing
Of course, the main chain tensioner must be removed.

Timing the cams is a breeze if you have the flywheel lock and cam locking tools, too.

There is a hole near the back of the engine on the intake side. it's hard to see, but you can feel it with your finger. You have to put the flywheel locking pin thru that hole into a hole in the flywheel. It will line up when the engine is at TDC.
Then you have to lock the cams in positon. There is a tool for this, but you can also make your own fairly easy.
Lastly, you need to use a rigid chain tensioner to tighten the chain before you tighten the bolts on the cam sprockets. This ensures the timing is right on.
I made drawings of all of these tools and put them in the knowledge base. Check it out.
Also I highly recommend you get a copy of the Bently manual we all love.
I may have seen it online... PM me

i think i know the whole u mean, like under the starter. but it seems to be way bigger then the little hole on the flywheel. is this correct?

It's not way bigger. maybe 12mm at in the block, 8mm in the flywheel.
You can reach it from on top of the engine, but it's tucked behind the drivers side engine mount.
Check out this link:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11334
The DIY tools are there

Ok, I finally put everything back together, well.. most everything. When I screw in the tensionor, located on the bottom right side of the block, it tightens the chain to the point that I can barely rotate the crankshaft by hand. Is that how tight it's supposed to be?

what do you mean by hand? with a nice size socket wrench it should turn with a little effort. i got mine all done too. i used a bolt to lock tdc and then noticed the notch and arrow on the front for tdc. then i used a regular bolt and nut with a big washer to make a rigid chain tensioner thing. the cams i basically eyeballed and then fine tuned after the chain was on using the little sprocket hole things that allow you to move it back and forth a little. turned out fine. well almost, i realized that the water pump is why it overheated and blew the gasket. not bad though. less than $200 and i got the car for $2000 becuase the guy had no idea what was wrong and head gasket failure signs look like something much worse. car should be worth around $7000 now. its a 98 active model. ide say thats some decent wheeling and dealing and mechanical work for a guy who just turned 17. :)