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well I installed my timing belt yesterday. I took me, by myself, about 11 hours. thats not very good considering the job pays 4-5 hours. anyway, I installed a new timing belt, water pump, and tensioner along with a new harmonic balancer and new belts. Now this job would have gone easier with some bigger wrenches, but I managed. I had to take the car to a auto shop to loosen the crank bolt, neither my works impact, my boss or my assistant manager could bust it loose. so a shop did it in a couple of minutes.

Anyway, I thought I would post pics for anyone interested. on a scale of 1-10 I would rate this job about a 5 on skill level. it isnt hard, just time consuming because everything is in tight *** spots. Also having the right tools is a big help.



this is just a pic of when I got the valve cover removed. I was going to adjust the valves, but after I got everything assembled, I said *** it. I forgot and remember once I had the cover installed.



here is after I removed the power steering pump out of the way to get to the alternator. this is one of the steps in removing this damn belt.



just a pic of the valve cover removed. I replaced the spark plug tubes seals also, and those were a bitch to remove.



here is after I got the alternator off. getting the ground bolt off took me a bit since it was in a tight spot. again having the right tools is a big plus.



this I believe is the old belt after I removed it. actually the belt still looked pretty good for having 114K miles. whoever said change it at 60K was wrong. Maybe for some cars.



this is the side of the engine with the belt removed. I didnt worry to much about making sure my marks were lined up for timing. none of the pulleys moved whatsoever during the install. But I did make a few marks on the head to the cam pulley and from the block to the crank pulley just to be safe.



this is how I had my car the whole time. And while doing this job, make sure you support the oil pan because you do remove the right side motor mount.



this is a shot looking up from the bottom. Notice the second pulley up is the tensioner. make sure you have some hex head sockets for removing the tension from this pulley. otherwise you will be screwed. I think it was a 6mm hex head, but cant remember. but it has a notch on the side for it. and it doesnt move that far either, once you remove the tension, while holding it, I reached up top and removed the belt from the cam pulley.



here is the old harmonic balancer. it didnt look to bad, but I replaced it anyway.



another pic of the PS pump removed out of the way.



this is after I installed the new belt. took me awhile to figure out how to get it on. when I installed the new tensioner, before you install the spring on the block from the tensioner, you have to install the belt. Now I found that running the belt over all the other pulleys then over the tensioner pulley was the easiest. the manauls way didnt work. there method was install the belt from the bottom up.



bottom pic of the belt installed.



this here is right after I pulled the water pump. I wasnt expecting this, but I got a face full of coolant. I was expecting a little bit of coolant, but it came gushing out. thats my fault thought. I should have known that.

well no more pics. wasnt much else. just remember thought if you do this install, again make sure you have some long, and I mean long wrenches, because some of the bolts are in very tight spots and can only be reached from the bottom looking up. and a socket will be too big to fit into the space. also make sure you have a hex head socket for the tensioner.

if you have any questions, just let me know.

 
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rep for you, awesome write up and good pictures/explanations

 
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I love pictures. Thank You
If your going to tackle this, there a couple things you should know. You should have a manual with step by step procedures. The cam gear and crank gear SHOULD not disturbed(moved) while the belt is off. If you put it back together and the timing is off, having to take it all apart to get it right, would suck. The crank pulley is VERY VERY tight. A heavy duty impact gun is required. Iv'e done it without the special tool that holds the crank pulley, but using it makes it much easier.
Just trying to add.

 
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ya i did mine to it was hard but i like to work on cars so it was fun for me and a scale one to ten its about a 5. Nice write up.

 
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yea I also purchased the crank pulley tool, but even with it and my work impact it didnt bust loose, my manager even used a breaker bar and cheater bar and it didnt bust loose. I ended up taking it to a shop and they used a 3/4 or 1 inch impact to bust it loose.

Now when I lined the timing marks up, I just made sure the up mark on the cam gear was facing up. Then when you remove the harmonic balancer, you will notice a line on the crank gear lines up with the oil pump timing mark. but I didnt worry too much, my strength alone couldnt move anything.