Exhaust camshaft Adjuster HELP!

[Flotronux]

So I'm trying to figure out what's going wrong here. I been working on cars for a long time and I have done timing belts before. Well something has me confused about this 2.0T engine. Going back a few months I did a carbon cleaning of my intake valves and in this process you turn the motor over manually using the crankshaft bolt turning clockwise to close the valves of the cylinder you are cleaning. Anyways after I put it back together I had a check engine light and it was a code for timing of camshafts, well after some digging around I removed my cover on the back of the head and found my exhaust cam adjuster sprocket to be kind of messed up. It has pins that mate it to the cam then you bolt it to the cam but the pins bent from me turning the motor over manually. So i was getting that check engine light and it wasn't accelerating very well either. So i was stumped as to why the heck Turning the motor over bent these little pins, i mean come on the starter cranking the motor probably puts more stress on it. So anyways I replaced it which was a bit of a pain but I got it and everything was fine after that driving good. Well Turns out I have a bad head gasket now so i'm replacing that and guess what I have to manually rotate the engine again to get the timing lined up for removal of the head. Well I was worried about the pins bending again but I have never in my life thought manually turning the motor could cause that damage so i turned it over nice and easy clockwise got the timing marks lined up. Well I have the head off now and I can slightly move the adjuster around when i try to wiggly it. So I think the pins bent on me again from turning the motor. Has this happened to anyone else? What the heck is going on here? these cam sprockets are not cheap either! I'm not thrilled!

Heres a picture of the pins that bent on me, these mate to the back of the camshaft. the one pin looks worse than it was when i removed it but i had pulled it out so i just set it back on. but the left one if you look close at the 1st picture, you can see the small crease from where it is bent.

[aluthman]

That's from the first time or the second time you rotated it by hand. The pins should not bend when turning the engine by hand. I don't know how it happened to you, but it was likely a freak occurrence. I have rotated my engine quite a bit for various reasons, including removing the head. I have had no issues with the cam adjuster. There is some play in it by design if you try to wiggle it by hand. I would be too concerned. Since you have the head off, you can always pull it and check for peace of mind.

[Flotronux]

from the first time....ok maybe the slight play i'm feeling is normal....but the first time it happened i can't comprehend how it could even happen haha! but it definitely did because i had the check engine light and acceleration problem and replacing it fixed it. and the pins where bent as you can see. Maybe i'm just being paranoid cause it's not moving much but it does a little. Thanks

[aluthman]

You should be able to wiggle it maybe 1/16" tops in either direction.

[Flotronux]

ok...I'm not even close to that much movement. maybe like 1/64" Thanks I really appreciate the help. I just figured with how hard you torque that bolt on that it shouldn't move at all.