H22LUDE808

i have done a few motor swaps in the past. my most recent is a jdm h22 into my 92 prelude si.
car does not have full power, squeeling while reving and driving. i checked the timing belt, and its coming off the cam gears a little. it feels like its on too tight.
i ordered all new h23 parts to swap to the manual tensioner.
before the parts get in i just wanted to find out some info.

whats the easiest way to take off and put on a timing belt?
how in gods name do you keep all the marks lined up while putting on the belt and make sure timings not off?
do i need a timing light?
has anyone done the auto to manual tensioner swap with motor in car? if so how hard is it from a scale from 1-5?
do i need to take off the crank pulley to do the tensioner swap and replace timing belt?

any help or advice or problems youve run into would be greatly appreciated.
thanks HT
rob

Acidcrakker

Yeah its a real pain to do that. You might as well get a start on cursing.

The tensionor swap is a good idea

Doing the belt itself, can okay. Yeah right

Do you have a helms, its easy but you have to take your time. Yes the crank pulley has to come off as well.

H22LUDE808

oh crap
how the heck am i supposed to break the pulley bolt.. lol
i gotta borrow a compressor.
i do have a helms.
trust me the cursing has started.

vlang29

put it in 5th gear, pull the e-brake and have somebody hold the brakes down, put about 3 or 4 feet of pipe on the end of the breaker bar.

I had to swear a lot, but i got 'er done this way. My impact didn't even have enough grunt to get her off.

Infinity_Racer

hmm not trying to doubt you, but i was just curious what other engine swaps you've done...its just weird to me how you can do engine swaps, which is far more involved, and not know how to do a timing belt...usually its the other way around; learn to do a timing belt THEN learn to do an engine swap...

but anyways, you can do what vlang said or leave the pass side tire on and drop it down a lil bit while you try to muscle the crank pulley bolt off with a long breaker bar...and if you dont wanna do that, borrow someones air compressor and good impact gun and get it over with in like 5 seconds. You do not need a timing gun and everything else is pretty straight forward. Getting the belt on with the manual tensioner will be a bit difficult cus for some reason it seems pretty tight and the belt wont slip right on; just keep trying and it'll eventually go on. Make sure you keep everything (cam gears, crank pulley, and balancer gears lined up. On the front balancer gear there's a marking on the block that lines up with a mark on the gear and for the rear you're gonna have to stick a screwdriver in the back of the block to keep the gear in place...here's the links from the helms...pictures always make it easier. good luck

http://i12.photobucket.com/alb...t.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/alb...2.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/alb...3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/alb...4.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/alb...5.jpg

H22LUDE808

lol i knew this comment was gonna come sooner or later.
the swaps ive done in the past, i havent really messed with the timing.
b16 into 4 door ek
gsr into del sol
gsr into ek coupe
sr20 into a hardbody
h22 into a 4th gen lude

all these swaps were done with one friend. that friend does timing, wiring, pretty much timing and everything electrical.
all i do is peel the motor apart, check internals, swap out if need or if upgraded internals are to be put in. new head gasket. drop it in.
.
didnt really pay attention, but that punk stay in vegas till end of march..lmao
now i regret not learning how.
but yeah i dont know everything. just looking for advice.
thanks for the links

PirateMcFred

The "easiest" way to put one on is when the engine's on a stand out of the car.

The "easiest" way to remove the timing belt is to pop the valve cover off and cut the belt. It comes right out then.

Otherwise it's pretty involved getting the timing side of the engine liberated from the chassis to get the belt on and off.

A factory service manual like a Helm Manual will be of great assistance to you. Good luck

Pirate

mattpall

Crank pulley bolt can be broken with the Gorilla Power Wrench availible at autobarn.com.
"Because it's a jungle out there"
But seriously, it's a mess.

H22LUDE808

yeah ill probably just cut it. that sounds good.

a friend told me that there is a tool that holds the cam gears in place so its tdc and you can work on the crank to keep everything aligned while putting the belt on?
is there such a tool.

** damn i hate timing belt jobs. and the tensioner doesnt sound fun either..

98vtec

i said expletive it and jammed a screwdriver into the flywheel teeth

backyard engineering ftw

JTCdudeman

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98vtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i said expletive it and jammed a screwdriver into the flywheel teeth

backyard engineering ftw</TD></TR></TABLE>

I taught blake everything he knows.

blacklude98

sounds like a bitch job...right up there with changin the clutch. i'm gonna have to do this soon also, so i'm not too happy about that lol

typeS

Do the preludes have a holes in the cams, like the B series motors, that you can put a drill bit into to hold them at TDC?

98vtec

yes

SikB

I have done the tensioner swap with the motor in the car simply because I couldn't get the pulley bolt off until my pulley bolt holder arrived which I highly recomend using. Replacing the tensioner wasn't that hard given the limited space but getting the belt on was no picnic. Get a friend for sure. You should be able to drop dowels in the camshafts to hold them.

And yes you need to remove pulley and yes you need a timing light.

trulude

i'm changing the timing belt on my 92 lude right now, and i'm wanting to change my cam gears out with my skunk2's while i have it apart.. how bad will my timing be off if i do this?