You said " What do you do in a coilpack car? Will the cam and crank sensor tell the computer what to do, or is it possible to set it 360 degrees out of time?"
The crank and pistons couldn't care less if it's on a compression or exhaust stroke....
The cam sensor tells the ECM what stroke it's on and the combination of both the crank and cam sensor pulses tell the ECM to start counting down to the correct time to fire the fuel injectors and when to fire the spark plugs... The ECM controls exactly when the next event (injector or spark) happens and makes changes when needed...
If the cam and crank gears are properly aligned you can't get the engine "out of time" ...
Now mechanical timing can be thrown off if the woodruff key on the crank shaft gets damaged (sheared)...The timing marks on the cam and crank gears will look correct but the engine will either run poorly or not at all...On some early 2000 Rios the cam lobe on the intake cam would get loose and move and that would also throw the timing off... The lobe was under the valve cover and the sensor was on the valve cover...
You should be fine just replacing the timing belt...
Dave

 

Thanks, that's what I needed. I've seen on distributor cars where you can line up the mechanical side to tdc cylinder 1, but the distributor is pointing to #3 . Wasn't sure if this was an issue with coilpacks.

 

Spark advance and when they fire are controlled by the ECM...
Huh?
You have coil packs and a distributor?
The Sephias in the USA in 2000 should not have a distributor...
I believe the last year for them was 1998...
Dave

 

This is why we ask newbies to add a general location and year and model of their car...
This is a "Global" forum...
I see you are in Norway... The engines, fuel, transmissions, headlights all can be different...
Left click on your forum name, then click on "about me", then click on the little yellow pencil next to the item you wish to fill in or edit...
Dave

 

No, my car does not have a distributor. I just know I have seen the timing belt replacement done on other cars where you also had to line the distributor to number 1 spark plug. This is a problem when putting on a new head where you end up putting the belt on and its pointing to number 3. I know my car has no distributor, but the belt broke, and I have no way of knowing if the bottom end stopped at an ignition stroke or an exhaust stroke. I say ignition not compression because I know that is handled in the top end. But I guess in a coilpack car it simply registers as up and down, and the cam sensor and ecm decide when to fire the spark plugs. I just want to make sure that if I simply line up the marks on the crank and cam gears that the spark plugs will fire on the right cylinders, since I see no way to change or adjust that.

 

... I have no way of knowing if the bottom end stopped at an ignition stroke or an exhaust stroke ...

Long years ago, my dad taught me to find that, by inserting a long screwdriver from the Sparkplug's opening and move the Crank until the cylinder number one, reaches the position at the Distributor, so I completely understand that old-school way to align everything... However, that knowledge doesn't apply to modern engines.

If your Kia Sephia in Norway, has the 1.8L engine known as T8D, it is provided with other marks that you should align, to get the timing synchronization, as it should.

 

An image worth 1,001 words, so how many words worth a couple of Videos? :grin:

The T8D engine was developed by Kia, originally to be used on the Kia Elan, then it was used in the second gen Kia Sephia, in the first gen Kia Spectra, and other models of Kias as well; here I share with you, a couple of videos regarding the Timing belt Procedure on same T8D engine, but on a first gen Kia Spectra, hoping that your Kia Sephia has that same T8D engine:

 

The timing marks are Explained on the second video, from minute 5:14

I hope these ideas might be Helpful for you.

Kind Regards.