Hi all,

Is there anything "special" about doing the belts on these cars, or anything that requires any special know-how or tools? Debating between going to a local shop and an "evo" shop to get this work done, IDK if there was a special tensioner or anything like that for the car, or a specific spec the car needs

Youtube has a lot of how to videos

So long as the local shop is competent it should be no problem. The engine has been used in variations for over 20 years. Their are kia/hyundai's and multiple others that have identical tbelt setups. It's not overly complicated.

thanks - i'll watch the boosted vlogs and see

they recommend buying special tools - namely,

- timing belt tensioner tool
- fixed cam gear positioning tool
- preload eccentricity pulley tool

???

Cam gear tool is very helpful, not needed but cheap so why not.

Tension eccentric position tool is necessary for correct tension, also cheap.

I've never needed the other.

I've done a few of these, make sure you use the manual or a video, and it's easy enough to do yourself. The only thing that will make you scratch your head is when you're constantly a tooth off because you didn't follow procedure .

yeah.. i'll just take to an evo specific shop lol

The eccentric tool is really the only necessary one. Otherwise it's pretty cut and dry. Where in the US are you?

STL.

i think the other complication is i'm doing STM's undriven alternator pulley, and there's some **** in the back or something like that

From the the videos I've seen, it doesn't really look complicated.

If i was there i would also change the water pump and oil pump/front cas

e...

it is not complicated when the engine is out.. when it is in the car you have to be pretty handy to tighten the belt tensioner.

my 2 c.... cam locking tool is a great thing to have, use new tensioner. If you reuse the old one and are not carefull about pushing it back slowly there is a good chance you will have slack cambelt afterwards

Always use a new tensioner and a cam locking tool. It is just easier and worth the piece of mind. If you have the cash, no time and trust your shop then drop it off

If you ask a shop to do the job then you can verify if they tensioned the belt correctly.

Ask them to tension the belt and show that the grenade pin can slide in and out of the tensioner. Then ask them to rotate the crank a couple times and repeat the test. If the grenade pin can still slide in and out then the belt is tensioned correctly.

ive done it myself twice with no special tools allthough that tensioning tool would have been handy rather than the way i did it, lol. anyway, i had no problems after each attempt.