Im guessing it is possible, but would it cause a problem? Like abnormal wear on the water or oil pump, or even too much tension that could rob some horsepower? Reason I ask is because I just retightened my belt, it was a little loose, and I also did a valve adjustment and fluid change. Now my car feels kinda sluggish. Im wondering if its related more to the valve tolerances which I did very tight but within spec, or maybe the belt is too tight.

One thing I did notice after tightening the belt, there is no "slack" feeling anymore and response is a bit more instant. sorta feels like I put a rear motor mount in.


Modified by RTW Ryan at 1:03 PM 3/25/2005

 

A lot of people run them a little on the tight side intentionally I think, especially those running aftermarket cams. Kinda makes a supercharger-like sound when they're a little tight.

A little overtightened shouldn't hurt, just keep an eye on the belt for abnormal wear.

 

It is a possiblity.

 

I believe a rule of thumb for tightness is that you should be able to twist the belt about 5mm-10mm, if the belt is too tight it will make a whining noise.

 

hmmm...maybe I should loosen mine a bit then. It has been known to make people think my car is supercharged and it definitely sounds like that now. Such a pain in the **** though and it seemd so loose I was worried about skipping teeth. ahhhhh.

 

i also believe if you run the belt to tight, it puts to much stess on the cam caps and journals and could possibly cause them to wear unevenly and possibly break.....

 

I wish I had another R closeby to compare tensions with

 

i kept mine a little on the tight side..... "sort of a light humming sound".... and never had any problems, and i was also running spec b's......

you are probably fine.....

did you tighten it the old coat hanger way?

 

I tightened it by pushing up on the tension pulley some because im running a thin gasket and supposedly you cant just let the tensioner do its normal job of adjusting the tension. so you have to manually do it. wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt for the timing belt cover which has to be removed in order to access the pulley. which means you gotta remove the crank pulley, which means you gotta remove the flywheel cover, jam a screwdriver in ther, etc. lol PITA all for a little more compression

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW Ryan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I wish I had another R closeby to compare tensions with </TD></TR></TABLE>

I could come up... Maybe Sunday

 

its good for now...ill compare when we get the meet set up.

 

When I was running my old R with the valves adjusted on the tight side, I noticed the same feeling of power loss. I readjusted them to the middle of specs. and the car felt normal again. My .02

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW Ryan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I tightened it by pushing up on the tension pulley some because im running a thin gasket and supposedly you cant just let the tensioner do its normal job of adjusting the tension. so you have to manually do it. wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt for the timing belt cover which has to be removed in order to access the pulley. which means you gotta remove the crank pulley, which means you gotta remove the flywheel cover, jam a screwdriver in ther, etc. lol PITA all for a little more compression </TD></TR></TABLE>


.....try the coathanger method. It's a little harder to make it *too tight* that way...

I usually run more tension than the helms recommends, just to be safe. Also, because I change the belt more often than they recommend as well.

 

Aren't there different stiffer springs from TODA or Spoon available for the tensioner?
In that case you can let the tensioner do the job if you have TODA cams or such....

 

Im not familiar with the coat hanger method. And I didnt realize aftermarket springs for the tensoner were available. Ill look into both. I drove it some last night, and Im guessing the sluggishness is more related to the valve tolerances. Kinda feels like I put my stock intake on and the top end is not as strong.

 

I also think that the "sluggish" feeling is more a function of the valve lash than belt tension. My belt sings.

 

re adjust your valve clearence, too tight
will cause some loss in power . i once over tightened
mine and it would barely idle along with the power loss.

 

hmm maybe thats where my supercharger sound is coming from, will check mine tomorrow.

 

by the way, I never loosened the belt, or changed the valve clearance...but I did readjust my base timing back to around 16 degrees, and it feels great again. i still have the supercharger whine though that seems to come and go.

 

Donde esta Dan GSR?