I was PMed about how to time the Protege today. Here is the reply, I just posted it here as well so you all could refer to it as well.
You have to make sure that all three timing marks line up. There is one on the crank pulley as well. There should be a series of lines and numbers on a raised wedge of plastic near the bottom of the motor, it might be dificult to see as you have to look down where the mess of belts are. There is a dash line betwen the two belts on the crank pulley. Use you hand or a long wrench that is... s***, I think it's like a 19 or 22mm, it's rather large.
Use the crank pulley to rotate the engine so the marks line up on the zero. That is called "Top Dead Center" or TDC. That means that the #1 Piston is at the Top of the stroke.
Next, you have to make sure that the cam gears are timed properly. You notice that there are "L" shaped holes on the inside of the gear. These are for the dowel pins on the cams. When the crank is at TDC, both of the Dowel Pins on the cams are supposed to be at the top, like 12:00 position. Next, make sure that the gear are on properly.
The left gear on the intake side should have the dowel pin in the groove that would make a "J" shape, top down to left so the mark near the "I" on the stock gear is facing the other gear.
The other gear (Ex) makes a "L" shape, from top to right so the mark near the "E" faces the intake gear.
The Belt should naturally want to go on with everything lined up like this.
Make sure the tensioner spring was put on corectly or it would just jump a tooth and go out of timing.
It's important to line everything up because the cam position sensor reads those stupid magnets that are attached to the gear to decide uppon timing and spark and fuel delivery... Kinna important functions that could mess s*** up.
Reference:
http://protege5.ugly.net/
01-10 Mechanical (FS)
01-10b8 Timing Belt