Hi all quick question. I had a shop that skipped town and left my car in pieces. 😠 now im trying to piece everything back together.

the head was removed to be machined. I put the Head is back on but the timing belt seems to have just be removed from the cam gears since the lower timing belt cover is still on. Ive read that this was most likely done with the tensioner tool which I have just ordered btw. Seems as if the tool was used to get the belt off then left alone. Head has new cams and valves now.

question is could i set the cams and the crank to TDC and use the tension tool to get the belt back on? Or would there be a chance the belt might have come loose or skipped a tooth below (lower timing area) since nothing was holding the belt aside from the tensioner after the belt was removed from the cam gears?

I really dont want to have take the lower cover off and everything else that comes with it since I had the timing belt services less than 10k miles. but i would rather not bend my valves either. 😢

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If it were me I would pull the lower timing cover to double check everything just in case. It's nice to have the peace of mind

 

Pull lower cover reset everything there is alot of how to videos not that hard just take your time and double check your work.

 

Suck it up and pull the lower cover

 

No question, you have to retime the motor. Make sure to correctly set the oil pump gear so that the balance shaft is in phase. Also make sure to follow the procedure for setting the tension very carefully.

 

Appreciate the feedback guys.

Guess Ill be removing the cover and getting down and dirty. Looking at some of the tutorials it calls to have the motor mount removed would this be necessary in my case since I simple just need to set the timing versus removal components?

Also can anyone recommend solid guides for the process I found a few plus the service manual I would like to get as much resources as possible or even a better guide if you have a recommendation.

 

You have to remove the tensioner to compress it and set the locking pin (grenade pin). You don't remove the mount though, you just need to loosen the nuts so the engine lowers down. You might not have to do that to remove just the tensioner though. I know you needed to lower the engine to get to a pulley but I can't recall about the tensioner.

I would say watch videos to see what your getting into, but use the service manual to do the actual job.

 

Just take the mount off, everything is easier with it out of the way, especially removing the water pump pulley.

 

I'm not sure what tensioner tool you're talking about, but i assume that it's the threaded rod tool. If you don't have the cam gear lock or the tensioner pulley tool, i highly suggest getting them. I got my set of the 3 tools for ~$50 from jays racing...well worth the money.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot next time.

 

Make sure you get the eccentric pulley tool, i didnt think i needed it and i was wrong. It was a pain to tension the pullet without it. I ended up buying it and taking everything apart to re-tension everything to make sure it was ok.