My son bought a 1998 Acura CL with the J30 V6. It has 198k miles on it, so, among other things, we did a valve adjustment, and put a new inexpensive timing belt kit on it (Belt. Roller, Idler, Water Pump and Tensioner). Ran great. He drove it a few hundred miles. And it died. Sounded like it was out of time.

So I tore it all apart again, and the rear cam was about 120 degrees behind (I was thinking bent valves). Front cam was good. The weird part was, that the timing belt was installed and working, no missing teeth or anything, still looks brand new. The tensioner was installed and working. The timing belt was tight, all the way around. All of the screws were tight and everything rotated smooth.

My question is, if the belt is installed correctly and remains intact, how can one cam get out of time? There must be something I am missing.

 

Just following up. The new TENSIONER that I bought was inconsistent. I had to install it two more times to get the timing right. It was almost solid the first time, and the next time. It could not be compressed by hand. Even winding the screw did not compress it completely (weird?). The third time, it got squishy and you could compress it 1/2 inch or so with your fingers. The old tensioner we took off could only be compressed 1/8 inch or so. So we put the old tensioner back on - with a $100 Gates high performance blue racing timing belt that was made in the united states of Merika, under god, with liberty and justice for all. No problems so far. Oh, and no bent valves, WHEW.

Based on my experience, my advice is to not replace the factory tensioner. I mean unless there is something obviously wrong with it. If you don't have the tool, you will have to buy a new tensioner to get the tool. My brand new tensioner is in the landfill. But I now have the tool that came with it. Note that later revisions to the tensioner used a simple pin to hold the tensioner compressed. A better design. Not sure if those pin tensioners are compatible with early J engines or not. Maybe you can get a pin tensioner and toss the tool-operated one?