Groove in the Timing Belt?

[Galactica]

Thanks for the advice man. Pray to the Gods of every religion that I don't FUBAR this engine....Looks like it'll be down at least a week, maybe more since I need to buy that timing belt kit and wait for it. All I can do is tear it down and get it ready to remove the belt in the meantime.

 

[boostedinaz]

^^^^^

Please for the love of God get a bunch of zip lock bags and make sure your organize everything.

 

[Barnes]

Quoting Terry Posten:
Just make sure you set the motor at "top dead center" so all the marks line up BEFORE you lock the tensioner down and remove the old belt. Then just make sure every mark is spot on when you release the tensioner pin after the new belt is on and you will be good.



You have to recheck the tension of the belt. I think it is highly inadvisable to skip that step.

 

[Barnes]

Quoting boostedinaz:

The person who also told him it was just done didn't put the right bolts in the right places. Sometimes the 100 mile rebuild isn't as described.



True. Perhaps Galactica should check receipts to see what was purchased new. My buddy had his car completely rebuilt with new parts, and they messed up that one bolt. No sense in tossing all those perfectly good parts because one bolt was placed in the wrong spot.

 

[Diego]

x Eleventy-billion

 

[Terry Posten]

What step Barnes?

Of course you have to make sure the tension is correct and then spin the motor over by hand a few dozen times and recheck at the end.

That was meant as a tip to help him keep the whole rotating mass timed, not a full process.

After all, that is the hardest part of the job (if something gets out of adjustment from another part).

 

[Barnes]

The way you wrote you post made it sound like you could skip that step. We have to be extra careful with the newbies!

 

[pauleyman]

Why do people screw up those bolts. It's well documented in the service manual. Are you sure you weren't quoted the balance shaft belt?

 

[Galactica]

You are correct pauleyman. The guy was a knob. Came to pick up the timing belt and he brought out the balance belt. Knot head.... I'm beginning to wonder if I really wanna do this right now. NE1 want to buy my Galant?? God help me, I love the thing, but man this timing belt thing has me totally jaded right now...

 

[pauleyman]

If you have any mechanical skill at all timing belt isn't difficult. It's procedural and somewhat lengthy as maintenance items go but it isn't difficult. Get a copy of Mitsu ASA parts lookup software and learn how to use it. I don't tell the dealer what I want and haven't for more than a decade. Just give them the part number. No fuss that way. Better make damn sure you know what you're doing though or it's 100% your fault at that point and you wait longer for the right part.

 

[curtis]

Something else I want you to do. Take off the covers placing all the bolts on a piece of cardboard then when the covers are wiggled out put the bolts in the cover so the lengths etc aren't out of place. Might want to dig in caps to make sure the bolts are correct then turn the engine with a socket on the crank to top dead center, all spark plugs out to make life easier. Number one piston up and blowing your finger out of the hole. Then you can take a small wooden dowel rod or a long screw driver and let it rest of number one piston top, slowly turn the crank left and right to verify your exactly 100% tdc. After that look at all the dots and marks and make damn sure everything is perfect lined up. It probably want be. Thats why I explained it this way. From the factory everything is 100% lined up then after rebuild company A makes a head gasket thats a few thousandths thinner or thicker or the heads been milled, a few ten thousandths are worn from all the gears. Its rare that the marks all line up 100% just wanted you to be aware of this. Now that you have everything dead nuts perfect get your camera and a paint marker , whiteout, or a sharpie marker and mark the old belt to the gears etc and then about 50 pictures so if you do run into problems going back together you can get the old belt and put it back on and figure out why and where things went south on you. Follow the instruction especially on the tensioner. If you don't compress it correctly and put it back on everything may go back together fine but first fire up things go really bad.


I think if your this stressed about it and never done one before you should find someone in the PNW that has and they may like t bone steak and bakeamatatoes combined with beer after the job is done. Not while your doing it! Its one thing to drink heavily waxing a car but beer and timing belts don't mix to well. Maybe some of the PNW crew will be down for some food and work or maybe try over on the dsm sites up there. I really wouldn't advice carting it off to the dealer or a shop because if you plan on keeping this car this is a job you need to know how to do.

 

I've seen similar belt damage caused by the cam gear cover not being fully bolted down. Take a look inside the cover and see if there are any wear marks where it could have been rubbing. It's worth a look and might save you from chewing up another belt.

As far as the belt goes yes replace it. Get someone to help you out if it's your first one and read the vfaq a few times. With that said I've seen timing belts WAY more chewed up than that and wondered how they didn't fail.

Oem belts are great but there is nothing wrong with using a gates belt that's half the price.

Good luck!

 

[4thStroke]

We use Gates or Napa replacement belts on our builds with good success.

 

[boostedinaz]

Quoting Galactica:
You are correct pauleyman. The guy was a knob. Came to pick up the timing belt and he brought out the balance belt. Knot head.... I'm beginning to wonder if I really wanna do this right now. NE1 want to buy my Galant?? God help me, I love the thing, but man this timing belt thing has me totally jaded right now...



Don't let it get to you. As with anything you are doing for the first time go slow, pay attention, and if in doubt double check. One of the biggest benefits to owning a DSM/GVR4 is how well documented these cars are. If you follow the step by step instructions you will be fine.

Plus, think how rewarding it will be to fire it up and know that you fixed it and sazed money at the same time.

 

[Boost4U]

When I got my last 1g, I took off the cover and found the t belt was very similar to yours, I took it all apart and found a 10mm bolt, probably for the timing cover, just laying at the bottom of the timing cover kind of melted into my cover. like the others before said just take your time and look around for anything that isn't as it should be and clean it all up. It's worth the few extra minutes.

 

[Galactica]

Thanks again for all your support guys! I appreciate it a lot. Car is now parked in my garage and there she'll sit until I figure out what to do with her. I talked to a couple of my friends yesterday that are mechanics and instructors at PIR and they told me in no uncertain terms that it is critical that I replace the hydraulic tensioner as well. Mitsu sells these damn things for 110 bucks! My question is, how necessary is it to replace this part? They said it may seem like the new belt is tight until you go to first turn it over and watch your head get destroyed as your new belt slips about 5 6 teeth because it's too loose. Should I just replace everything??

 

[Barnes]

Do you have receipts???? There is no point in replacing a perfectly good tensioner because people are telling you to. Establish FIRST if it is in fact in need or replacement. Just because a mechanic screwed up ONE relatively easy to miss thing doesn't mean you toss the baby with the bath water. Yes, I understand the mentality of 'when in doubt' and being on the safe side. But this engine *should* have recent parts on it, and hopefully receipts to match.

 

[Galactica]

The receipt I have for the motor is very general. All it shows is 1450 bucks for a short block with pistons, rods, crank, and rings. It doesn't specify what exactly was done. I simply have the word of member 946 here that it was completely rebuilt. For all I know though, they could have reused the old sh*t just to be cheap. The belt looks fine (except for the stinking groove) but I honestly don't know what has been done exactly. I'm going to email Jordan and ask him if he has any more details about it. I hope he was being completely truthful about things with me...

 

[grocery_getter]

The timing belt tensioner has a manufactured date printed on the round shiny face of it. Look that up and see how old it is.

 

[boostedinaz]

Never realized that. GREAT information.