2.4L timing belt change..

[theblackpearl]

after my recent experiences with changing the timing belt on my g and all the shit i had to go through to get it timed correctly and everything i thought i would put a tutorial together..so here it goes..



these arent pics of my car i took them from blkkamikazegs on club 3g so thank him for the pics if need be.
and remember i am in no way responsible for you messing anything up while performing this task.


first thing is to jack up the car and support it with jack stands. once that is done remove the passenger side front tire and splash guard.the splash guard will have three bolts and i think three plastic clip things you need to remove to get it off

tire removed and splash guard that needs to be removed
next take the jack and a small block of wood and place it under the oil pan on the engine. dont jack it up just yet just support it for when you remove the motor mount. the mount and bolts needing to be removed pictured below..also you need to slide the coolant resovoir out in order to gain access to one of the bolts, pull it up towards you and it will come right out.



pictured is the mount removed

next you need to remove the acc. belts.
here is the A/C - P/S belt there is a bolt tensioner that you need to loosen up in order to get the belt enough slack to be removed. there is a locking bolt on the side that you will need to loosen up before you can loosen the tensioner.

same procedure goes for the altenator/water pump belt. loosen the lockin bolt then the tensioner. there is also a bolt on the back side of the altenator you will need to loosen in order to get the belt off.


here is the engine without the acc. belts and the motor mount...


next remove the cam gear cover. there should be about four bolts holding it in place..remove those and it will slide right off..


pic of the cover removed

now for the lower timing belt cover. you need to remove the crank pulley pictured below



in order to get the crank shaft bolt out since i dont have air tools i took a pretty burly ratchet and socket wedged the ratchet against the frame of the car, unpluged the coil packs, and cranked the engine for just a second, and it broke loose. the crank rotates clockwise so figure out which way you need to position the ratchet in order to get the bolt loose.


pic of the crankshaft bolt removed

next remove the four bolts holding the pulley to the crank. once pulley is removed it should look like this..


now next is to remove the lower timing cover. in order to get this out i had to remove the water pump pulley. there are four small 10mm bolts holding it on..its kind of tricky to get the bolts off have a friend help you keep the pulley from spinning..also youll have to raise the engine slightly in order to remove the pulley from the shaft.

pic of the pulley removed..


there should be about 5 bolts holding the lower timing cover on. remove those and slide it out from under the car.

this is the cover removed..in order to get the belt off your going to have to loosen a blue pulley which is just out of view in this pic, its up higher on the block. once that is loosend there should be enough slack in the belt to remove it. and once you have the belt off, you need to remove the sprocket, it slides off with a little effort. dont mind the circled bolts in this pic you wont need to remove those till after you get the sprocket off.


then comes the crank position sensor. two bolts hold it in place remove those and the sensor plate.
pictured is the timing belt off, sprocket removed and the sensor plate that needs to be removed. youll need to remove the hydraulic tensioner circled in order to get the plate out and gain access to the balance shaft belt. there are 2 12mm bolts holdin it in place.



this is the balance shaft belt..it too has the same blue tensioner as the timing belt did. all you need to do in ordr to remove the belt is loosen this tensioner and the belt should slide right off..you can either remove the tensioner completely or just loosen it..either way.


here is a picture of everything removed..


okay now here comes the fun part. gettin everything set to the correct timing specs. okay we will start with the cam gear and work our way down...

1. the cam gear will have a notch on the side of it and possibly it will have a colored mark on it.(mine did) there will also be a notch in the valve cover right above the cam gear. you need to get the notch on the gear to line up with the notch on the valve cover. rotate the cam clockwise if you need to in order to get it lined up.

2. the crankshaft- if you look on the crank position sensor plate there will be a notch taken out of it in one spot. slide this and the sprocket back onto the shaft and rotate it clockwise until you can line it up to the TDC markings that you will find on the lower timing belt cover. you can see them in one of the pics above(i dont know why they are on the outside cover its retarded)

3. on the balance shaft(upper left corner of balance belt) you will see an arrow on the shaft sprocket. and to the left on the block there will be a notch. you need that arrow to line up with the notch..

4.on the oil shaft(far right) there will also be an arrow on the sprocket, and you will see another arrow allong the perimiter of that sprocket that you need to line that up with.

okay now that you have your timing marks set you can put the belts back on, start with the balance belt.

in order to tension the balance belt youll need to rotate the blue pulley once the belt is on( i used a screwdriver to get enough leverage on the pulley to tension the belt. be careful though while youre tensioning the belt the timing settins have a tendency to move off of their marks. make sure they stay marked up.

now there are a few things you need to do before puttin the new timing belt on. first....

the hydraulic tensioner that you removed needs to be set again. to do this you need to put it in a vice or clamp and compress the shaft down until you can stick a small nail or pin of some kind through the holes and hold the shaft down..once youve done this you can bolt it back up onto the block.

secondly get the timing belt on and make sure ALL of your timing settings are still to spec, if they have moved mess with the belt until you can get them lined up again.

now to properly tension the belt. the blue tensioner for the timing belt will have two holes in it. i used an allen wrench to stick through one of these holes and had a friend pull up on it from above until the tension was properly set and then i tightened the bolt back down to hold the pulley in place, be sure the pulley doesnt rotate while your tightening it.

now to check to see if your tension is correct youll need to crank the engine over a few times and go back to the pin you set in the hydraulic tensioner, if you can remove and replace the pin with ease your tension is correct. if you cant remove the pin and replace it without a lot of effort you need to re tension the blue pulley until you can remove and replace that pin into the hydraulic tensioner.

now go ahead and start putting the covers and everything back on and you should be done..
if i have missed anything someone please feel free to add.. its late and im not sure if i covered everything or not.. let me know what you guys think...

[IceDouTGaLanT]

great post man,maybe we can make this an sticky in the DIY section??

[theblackpearl]

yeah i was hoping for that...

[theblackpearl]

no stickyness? lol

[pinoyesv6]

few things.

a. you should mention who on club 3g you stole the pics from.

b. you could have stickied this yourself im pretty sure

and c. you ever fix your car? i'd be kinda hesitant to follow a tutorial written by a guy who tried it on their car and got it wrong.

[theblackpearl]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pinoyesv6)</div><div class='quotemain'>few things. Â*

a. you should mention who on club 3g you stole the pics from.

b. you could have stickied this yourself im pretty sure

and c. you ever fix your car? i'd be kinda hesitant to follow a tutorial written by a guy who tried it on their car and got it wrong.</div>

okay ill fix the post and mention who i got the pics from..

b. i dont know if i can sticky this myself?

c. yes lol i fixed my car and it is running fine now.. thats why i even made this tutorial..if my car was still fucked up i wouldnt have done this acting like i knew what i was talkin about or something...so yeah

[pinoyesv6]

im pretty sure you could sticky this yourself. i remember i used to unsticky posts members made all the time.

[DryBear]

Dustin - edit the very first post of this thread, and in the Options area, there should be the option for "Sticky"

[theblackpearl]

do you want to move it to tutorials?

[pinoyesv6]

sure.

[darylvia]

<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>So as it is now... is it right or wrong????????????????</span>

[seth98esT]

You guys have to removed big crank bolt to remove harmonic dampener or whatever? 7gs dont, and I dont think you do either, just unbolt the 4bolts on it and slide it off. If not, thats such a PITA haha!

But, first thing you SHOULD do when you have the timing cover off is to spin the crank with a open end wrench on the big crank bolt untill EVERYTHING lines up correctly(ALL OF THE TIMING MARKS). THEN remove the crank sensor and auto tensioner and pull the belt. From there, its just a matter of replacing the pulleys and belts, making sure the front BS sprocket is in-line, as well as with the rear oil pump sprocket, but those two spin freely.

If you take the timing belt off without making sure the timing marks are all lined up, you are making it 100 times harder then it has to be.

[manybrews]

I may have missed it, but one of the most important parts of this replacedment is correct timing of the oil pump/balance shaft. you DO NOT just line up the mark, as the balance shaft is on a 2 to 1 reduction. If the shaft is 360 degrees off (as it often is when this is done), the balance shaft AMPLIFIES vibration.
there is a hole in the side of the block with plug you must remove to determine if the shaft is at the bottom of its bore or not.

[FRCFD6]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seth98esT)</div><div class='quotemain'>You guys have to removed big crank bolt to remove harmonic dampener or whatever? Â*7gs dont, and I dont think you do either, just unbolt the 4bolts on it and slide it off. Â*If not, thats such a PITA haha!

But, first thing you SHOULD do when you have the timing cover off is to spin the crank with a open end wrench on the big crank bolt untill EVERYTHING lines up correctly(ALL OF THE TIMING MARKS). Â*THEN remove the crank sensor and auto tensioner and pull the belt. Â*From there, its just a matter of replacing the pulleys and belts, making sure the front BS sprocket is in-line, as well as with the rear oil pump sprocket, but those two spin freely. Â*

If you take the timing belt off without making sure the timing marks are all lined up, you are making it 100 times harder then it has to be.</div>

[SLS2000]

Thanks for this post. It has made some things clearer for me....

I 'll save up the money and take it to the dealer for this maintenance/repair.

:thumbsup:

[chbuzz]

Some things I would suggest for someone who is going to do there own first T-belt job.
1. Possible extra vehicle so your not in a big rush.
2. Service/Haynes manual.
3. Factory parts.
4. Decent set of metric tools; including a 3/8(ft/lbs) and 1/4 (ft/In) torque wrenchs and a 3/8 breaker bar.
5. Miller MD998767 timing tensioner tool.
The original post needs corrected to reflect that the Oil pump sprocket needs to be in phase as Manybrews posted. You can also take the oil pump sprocket and turn the arrow straight up and watch the way it reacts; if it falls toward the timing mark its in phase, if it falls toward the other side(3 O'clock position) it needs rotated around another revolution.
It's not that hard to do this just follow the steps in the manuals and DON'T rush.
You'll feel good about working on your own car, and learning what makes it tick while saving $$$!

[Satan]

The 2nd belt snapped and then the timing belt got fubar, taking both of the timing covers out... At about 30MPH. I replaced them with Gates brand at 130K miles. I'm at 177K miles now. Dunno what happened or if somethin' else was in there, causing the belts to get Fed up. I got these Duralast ones from Autozone ('cause they had 'em in stock).

Towing (2miles from home) = $77 (plus $20 tip, for backin' the G ride into the garage for me).
Timing belt = $30
2nd Belt = $20
Upper timing cover $72
Lower timing cover = $56

...About $260 and hopefully no bent valves, me doing the work, etc. Coulda been ALOT more $$ and time.

Don't take chances with yours!!!



And about 5 hours of work... I was being anal, following the directions in the factory service manual and within this thread. If ya wanna speed along, you can probably do it in about 3.5 hours.

Follow the factory manual and you will see that there are timing marks EVERYWHERE you need them, before putting the covers one.

Car drives like a champ again. I seem to have REALLY lucked out with no bent valves or other known/seen damage.

[seth98esT]

I dont see how you cant bend valves with a broken belt. Theres almost no way you didnt bend any valves. I bent all 16 when my belt slipped at idle :/

[Satan]

^^exactly. I was 95% sure that the whole motor was jacked. Figured I'd throw the belt on and see, since I am not necessarily where I'd like to be, in order to get a replacement vehicle.

Just got back from driving ~50 miles... No backfiring, smooth idle, etc. I can't believe it... technically/realistically, I should still be in the middle of pulling the head off and counting how many valves (or more) need replacing.

This is NOT what normally takes place, with an interference engine. I even told the wife that I was gonna go to church after this.

Again, fair warning to others... look at the cost I dealt with. I did it myself before and saved some $$, but things should have been significantly worse. At the very least, take that top cover off and take a look at the belt. Hopefully you spot it falling apart before it does what mine did.

If you know it needs changing, just knock it out.

[4g63lover]

I dont see how you cant bend valves with a broken belt. Theres almost no way you didnt bend any valves. I bent all 16 when my belt slipped at idle :/

yup. One of my valves took a chunk out of the piston on my old motor when the belt snapped at 60.