Now you see why I was assinged the non-critical jobs.:p Anyway, the hardest part will probably be getting everything out of the way to get the front cover off; power-steering, A/C, top enginge mount, etc. You will also make it easier on yourself if you jack up the car and take off the right front wheel and the inner fenderwell. Then you'll have to get all of the bolts out of the cover. It seems like there were some small bolts/screws down by the oil pan that could easily be missed. Then you have to pry up a little on the front cover then out. Using air tools like we did, you could probably have the gear exposed in an hour but, the first time you do it, plan on longer.:p Also, make sure there are no women or small children around in case of a slip of a naughty word or two.:D I did quite well on that though.:)

offset timing gear key
 

insted of filing your timing gear to death, or buying an adjustable timing gear, I'm pretty sure I've seen offset keyway keys, and the differnt offsets give you differnt degrees of change.

The problem is going to be finding things like that for a SOHC. There isn't as much of a market for SOHC performance parts since most people are modding the DOHC.:(

Well what I want to do would definately not be considered a performance mod. Well its sounds like its not possible to pull the gear from the top so I won't be able to do this. I can't spend a whole day taking apart a 64,000 mile engine fiddling with critical engine components. My family already thinks I'm a nut for attaching parts and removing spoilers on a practically new car. They actually made me sign a contract stating I wouldn't modify the car when I bought it.

My nissan was just plain easy. Take the valve cover off, unbolt/slide gear off and secure chain, remove cam caps, remove cam, reassemble was reverse process. Just press the oil pressurized tensioner back in and bolt together. I did the last in around 15 minutes on a nice warm engine.

Yah, it's been my experience that my sw2 is a PITA to work on also. Though I remember one particularly nightmareish starter motor on a stanza, took like 6 hours. It was like they built the car around the starter motor or something :)

I talked to Mike yesterday and he said that there is enough room to get at the gear without taking the front cover clear off. You can pry the cover out just enough to allow access to the bolt that holds the gear on. He did say that if you end up dropping the bolt that you will end up having to take it clear off anyway.:(