spiderrey

repaired a blown head gasket. all went well. cant seem to get the belt ternsioned correctly though. folllow instructions in book over and over. belt still seems loose. all help appreciated. this is my younger sons car. its vtec, i did this before when this car was non vtech and had no problems. cant remember what was different, it was a few years ago. need to figure this out so i can try adjusting the valves.

Bowman62

bad tensior?

spiderrey

thats it. is it that simple?

kranky81

it doesnt have to be bad just needs to be tightend. the easiest way is to get a coat hanger, make it into a hook, then theres a lil hole for it to fit into, from there you should be able to get it tight enough. if not then yea maybe its time for a new one. oh and not jokin about the coat hanger. worked for me.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I do not understand why people are using coat hangers and such to tighten the timing belt tensioner. Do you all understand that it is possible to get the belt TOO tight? Do you also understand that the OEM tensioner spring is perfectly adequate at putting proper tension on the belt, when the proper belt tensioning procedure is followed?

Now I always replace the tensioner pulley and the spring whenever I change the timing belt. Also, make sure the belt is installed in the proper order. Crank sprocket -> tensioner pulley -> water pump -> exhaust cam -> intake cam. It is very important that you install the belt over the exhaust cam gear first, and then over the intake cam gear. When you do this, you're automatically going to pull tight on the belt from the crank sprocket up to the exhaust cam gear. If you put it over the exhaust cam gear last, you're going to end up with slack on that long side of the belt, which means you'll be 1-2 teeth out of time.

As for tensioning, make sure everything is lined up at TDC, install the belt, loosen the tensioner pulley bolt so that the spring pulls and applys tension to the belt, then snug down the tensioner bolt. Rotate the engine over a few times to verify that everything stays lined up each time the engine passes TDC on the #1 piston.

Once you have checked that it stays lined up, loosen the tensioner pulley bolt. Now this is important - while the tensioner pulley bolt is loose, turn the crank pulley so that the cam gears move past each other by about 3 teeth. Finally, tighten the tensioner pulley bolt and torque to spec.

What you're doing by turning the belt with the tensioner loose is the belt tightens and pulls against that spring. This puts the proper tension on the belt, and then the tensioner bolt keeps the tensioner in place. At this point the spring doesn't do anything. It's really not that hard to do, and IMHO it easier doing it this way than guessing what the correct tension is by using a coat hanger or some other such make-shift tool.

spiderrey

now thats the reply i was looking for. Thanx Patrick. unfortunatly, from what my other son just told me, this motors gonna come completely apart. he telle me the cylinders were pretty scored up when his brother pulled the head. so now i need to open it up and recheck things so that it dosent fail in the near future. thanx guys.

mac_24_seven

iTrader: (1)

I did that Patrick, exactly like the Helsm said: Too loose. You coudl actually HEAR the belt slapping around. I purchased a new tensioner spring and it STILL DID IT.


I used a piece of metal to loop through the lil ear that the spring hooks to and tightened it manually.

The belt DOES NOT twist too far now and it doesn't sound like the top end is abotu to fly apart when it cranks up.

It was horrid man, I felt very uncomfortable with it.
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To the OP, you don't want the tension to be super tight, but it doesn't need to be flapping around (like mine was). I'd rather it be a lil too tight than too loose.

SuzukaBlueAP2

Just a note...the suggested torque rating for the tensioner bolt is 40 ft/lbs. I tried getting that w/ a 1/4" drive ratchet before; didn't happen.

mouab18c1

iTrader: (5)

good info...but i usually hand tightend my tensioner....

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

hmm odd, I have never had an issue with timing belts being too loose after tensioning using the correct procedure.

mac_24_seven

iTrader: (1)

I did it exactly man... Exactly. Rotated the crank 3 teeth on the cam gears.. Still too loose. Dunno why.

Or heck, maybe it's the way it should have been? I dont think so because it was actually slapping. The thought of a slapping timing belt + boost didnt' set good with me.

mouab18c1

iTrader: (5)

mine has some sort of slack on my exhaust side but yet sometimes when the car is turned off theres no slack..sometimes there is...if there is alot of slack then your forgetting to do something or the belt stretched...

mac_24_seven

iTrader: (1)

No completely true.. I bought a new OEM belt and I had slack.

Enough to make me worry.

mouab18c1

iTrader: (5)

you might need a new tensioner then....

91akira

Patrick- when you and the manual says turn the crank pulley counterclockwise THREE teeth does that mean while everythings is at TDC, back it off three teeth from TDC? NOT a full counter clock wise full rotation three times right?

blackeg

ive tried doing it like the helms says and i also feel it leaves the belt just a very tiny bit too loose. my first lsvtec was tensioned that way and i can remember watching the belt twist around like crazy on the dyno when it hit the limiter it scared me honestly. i know from watching that the belts tighten up a bit when the motor warms up.

i sorta go by the deflection/whine method. i like the belts to have like 3/4 inch deflection in the middle of the exhaust side and maybe around 3/8 inch between the wp and intake gear. if it whines its too tight, but dont confuse a whine with the noise that the back of the crank pulley can make sometimes if it rubs on the outer lower tb cover

DEF use a tq wrench on that tensioner bolt the fate of your motor lays in its hands

91akira

Thanks for the info on that but the question wasn't answered about what do they mean when backing up three teeth on the timing belt?

nicknack25

3 teeth from TDC. Not 3 full rotations.

blackeg

yeah rotating the motor counterclockwise from the crank pulley until the marks on the cam gears are off by 3 teeth