Did my timing belt job this weekend. Took me about 4-5 hours, not including a 2 hour excursion to go buy a chain wrench and get lunch. I could probably do it much faster next time, some of that time was just figuring out how things come apart. Plus it was my first timing belt change ever on any car so I was taking time to make sure I was doing everything right.
Both my tensioner and idler pulley were leaking fluid/grease, and the idler had some play and a slight grinding noise/feel, so if you do this job, you might as well replace those since you are in there. The kit with the belt and pulleys is only $40 on ebay. The spring on the tensioner may give you some fits putting it back on, its under tension, so you have to do some careful prying to get it to pop back on correctly. Also be careful removing it with the old pulley.
My water pump was not leaking, nor was my camshaft seal. valvecover gasket looks like it was starting to seep just slightly at the rear. I guess that will need to be changed out next time, or maybe sooner. The upper timing belt cover comes off real easy, 4 bolts, nothing in the way so its easy to inspect at any time. Pretty sure you can get a good look at the waterpump with it off too.
I took a few notes of some differences I had from the DIY above. Like the 1 bolt on the motor mount noted as 16mm, mine was 17mm, the lower timing belt cover had 5 bolts on mine (not 3), one being behind the water pump pulley, that was interesting to get out. Once I had it off, I actually cut the hole for the bolt off the cover, to make it easier to get the cover back on behind the pulley (very tight fit) and there was no way in **** I was going to be able to get the bolt back on behind the pulley. The upper cover overlaps the lower cover anyways, and when all the bolts are tightened, everything is nice and snug.
You can see the bolt here.
Strangely enough the 2 parts of the job that took me the most time (aside from running out to get a tool), were dealing with getting the new tensioner pulley installed, and fussing with that lower timing belt cover, lol.
You probably are going to want to use a chain wrench or something similar. Because you do need to use it again to keep the crank from turning when you are re-assembling and need to actually tighten the crank bolt.
Tip for the Belt: I made 3 marks with white-out on the crank pulley and a matching marks on the old belt, and 3 marks on the cam pulley and on the old belt. Once the belt was off, I transferred the marks to the new belt, ensuring during assembly I was getting the correct # of teeth on the belt between each of the pulleys. This makes sure you arent off a tooth or something, which would be bad. When I put the belt on and released the tensioner, all my timing marks matched up perfectly. I must have checked them about 5 times just to make sure.
I think thats what Attfield was trying to do but I dont understand all his markings around the tensioner and idler pulleys.....maybe thats after the belt was rotated a few times?
