Background: My engine has been rather noisy (post with sound clip )and I finally got around to re-adjusting the valves. I did a valve job about 6 months ago, but wanted to check my work. The exhaust valves all seemed to be right on, but the intake valves were a little loose so I tightened them up a little.

The timing belt (at least to me) seems to be off in some way shape or form. When turning the crank to position the cams it goes... hard, easy, hard, easy, hard, easy, etc... the hard meaning hard to turn and the easy meaning easy to turn. The 'hard to turn' coincides with tension in the timing belt between the two cam gears (pics below) and the 'easy to turn' coincides with slack between the two cam gears. Is this normal? Or is maybe the tensioner off or something? I'm not sure.

First 3 pics show the timing belt positioned when there is slack between the cam gears. You can see there's just under an inch of play in the belt (The rules shows tenths of an inch).








These next 3 pics show the play from farther back.








The next 2 pics show the timing belt positioned when there is no slack. You can see there is about a quarter inch of play.





These last pics show the cam gears at TDC and the cams.







So does this seem normal, or is something definately wrong? Also, when I put everything back together and cranked the engine.... after it warmed up it was noticeably quieter than it was before i adjusted the valves. However, I could still hear a nosie that seemed to be coming from the timing belt area. Maybe its hitting the cover? or something with the tensioner?

Also, what causes the tension, slack, tension, slack, etc. between the cam gears?

Thanks for any help!

 

check out honda service bulletin 01-010... tensioner problem

 

That belt looks like crap. I'd replace it with a high strength kelvar belt...

That's certainly too much slack, and you should probably replace the tensioner as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by solo2slocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">check out honda service bulletin 01-010... tensioner problem </TD></TR></TABLE>

Doesn't that deal with the auto-tensioners? And don't all h23's have manual tensioners?

 

I would imagine your bigger problem would be the frayed belt.

 

i would say that is deffinitely an auto tensioner problem or manual tensioner prob don't know if you got an h22 or h23 but that ground up belt is what mine looks like and i'm gettin the manual conversion done this week i might have replied to you previously about a sound clip if so get that tensioner replaced and a new belt

 

p.s. gamecocks rule!