if u did a clutch then you can do this no prob its not THAT bad

 

did you make sure the grenade pin could slide in and out of the tensioner after you were done? no timing belt whines unless its to tight and killing the pulleys.

hopefully you didnt overtighten the balance shaft belt either, that is supposed to have a good amount of slack to it.

 

I judged the slack for the balance shaft belt almost perfectly, and the hydraulic tensioner is within about 1mm of specs the grenade pin won't go all the way through but will go through the shaft giving 1mm +/- within perfect tension correct?

 

no not perfect tension if the grenade pin can not go through. did you turn the crank before or after you tested this with the grenade pin? because it will move even more after the motors rotated.

how much play do you have in your timing belt at the top between the cam gears when you push up and down on it? should have about a half inch of play give or take.

the gates belt DOES make more noise then the oem belt, but squeeling is not good at all. if you didnt change all your pulleys out for new ones the gates belt will destroy the bearings most likely. When I removed my gates belt i found blue shavings on my frontcase...... ill never use a gates belt again. I changed to power enterprise.

 

I just did my timing belt change today and used this How-To guide and the great tips in this thread to guide me through it. Everything went well and she's back on the ground and running smooth now. Thanks for all of the great info.

 

yes I did turn the crank actually about 5 times then left it alone for about 5 mins and the tension on the hydraulic tensioner was the same and i have maybe 1-2mm of movement on the belt in between the cam gears no more than that, and the belt doesn't squeel it's just a very faint almost hum

 

I meant to say 15 minutes in the previous post not 5 sorry

 

I'm pretty sure it's due to the different belt thats what I had originally thought thanks for the input.

 

ok my tdc and timing belt are all screwed up. will this write up work for a evo that lost crank position while timing belt and intake camshaft was out??

 

The best way to do this is to get a really long 1 piece extension, pull spark plug #1, insert extension through hole. Line up the crank timing mark and at this point the extension should be as high as it will be. To be absolutely sure you can get a feeler gauge to measure the TDC although I have not found a need to do this on stock motors.

 

Looks like I made the wrong move by having a local mechanic put the new timing belt on. (should this be done at 60k on an '03 Evo?) As soon as I got in afterward, I could tell there was something wrong. The vibration is pretty subtle, almost unnoticable below 3,ooo rpm, and not so bad up from there. But when I put the clutch in to upshift there is a pretty bad vibratrion that is worse the higher the rpm above 3,000. Customer service guy at rock auto tells me the balance shaft is not right.
Is this where the turning the crankshaft 3 full turns comes in? Any advice on what I can tell him to help him get it right?
Same thing happenned with my '93 laser RS, except the vibration was really bad when it hit 3,000 during acceleration, even without hitting the clutch. Same issue? (That was a different machanic; took it back 3 times, no help, switched shops after that.)

 

Ahh, getting ready to tackle this in a few weeks while I'm replacing the entire short block. Fortunatly for me the motor will be out of the car, so much easier to access everything.
Great write up though, all the torque specs and technical info will come in handy!

 

Just wanted to say thank you for this write-up, it was very helpful.

The only way I could get the crank bolt loose was by bumping the starter. I tried two different impact wrenches, heating it up, cooling it down, and nothing worked. Bumping the starter worked on the first try with just one bump.

The cam gear holding tool was indispensible in keeping everything aligned. I did the job by myself, so that was a must.

The only thing I didn't change was the idler pulley located just behind the power steering pump bracket. It looked like a pain in the behind to get to. I believe you have to remove the AC compressor off the bracket, then remove the power steering pump off its bracket, and finally remove the power steering pump bracket to get to the pulley bolt. I moved it back-and-forth and the bearings felt good, so hopefully it will hold.

 

While doing my timing belt I rotated the oil pump gear a few times to find out where the hole was to place the screwdriver...will this affect anything as long as I placed it tdc? Also I guess I need to loosen my balance shaft belt because I figured it would need to be tighter due to a new belt

Ill add that using ams tensioner and timing gear tools make this job alot easier but I didn't finish it due to being pissy after workig in the cold all day..ill finish it next weekend when im off work

 

No as long as you put the screwdriver in the block for the oil gear you should be fine.

As far as the balance belt you should set the tension with the eccentric pulley and not just slide the new belt on and go.