I did timing twice this weekend and the first time was with the Mechanical tensioner from Parts Dinosaur and there’s no way that would have worked because it was too tight. The second was with the hydraulic tensioner but now I have a rough idle, but no backfiring of CEL. Apparently, I’m off by a tooth or less.
I’m thinking that I should have Eric (my friend who owns a shop) do the timing and pay him $250 to do the entire job, coz to be honest, its driving me nuts. I was doing my timing on Christmas....
Point is do yall think that’s a good price??
My mom wants to get rid of it and get me a 2002 Nissan Sentra Se-R
:nono over my dead body...
Something has gotta happen before Jan 9 when school starts again...

Did you loosen the mechanical tensioner before you tried to put the belt on?

Timing is easy. I think i wrote a decent post not too long ago explaining to Driggs the best way to go about it. Basically you advance the intake and exhaustr cam about a tooth and a half, turn the crank about a tooth clockwise, and when you tension the belt and suck up all the slack, it pulls everything into perfect alignment. Cake.

timing is easy girl. just redo it, and keep rotating it after you get it done to make sure 100% that it is on target.



im sure your the one i met at bradington speedway. i think my car was white then

yep we met at bradenton
both of ours were white then (hopefully it will be that way again one day...)
whats so weird is that after I timed and tensioned it, it looked to be on TDC, both cams and the crank
I had 3 pair of eyes look at it too and they said it was on TDC just to make sure I wasnt having a moment.
so I dont get it..
I even locked the cams... and was sure the crank was dead on...

yeah i did loosen the mechanical tensioner all the way, but the belt was still a pain in the tukus to put on and it shouldnt be that way...
Im just SO over it. Everything Ive done myself, but I dont think I can face this job again...
so as much as it hurts, I fear Ill have to take it to a shop
my moms gonna pay for it and/or get the sentra :(

Hmm. Without seeing it myself, i can't offer much advice.

I know that on my SRT4 tensioner, you loosen it and then rotate it back with a 1/4" drive ratchet to get the belt on, then tighten it in the same manner and lock it in place with the bolt in the middle. :shrug

yeah mine was the same way
but it wouldnt release enough for the belt to slide over it
I eventually got it over with some creativity
but it was so tight that the belt was scuffing... and the car was extremely violent, moreso than now...

well, as far as getting the timing right..wheather it be with the mech one or the OEM hydraulic..you just gotta keep doing it..and before you bolt it all up and run it..test, test, and re-test and make sure its as close as you can get it. the manual says to set then rotate 2x...ahahah right. i probably did it about 10x or so just to make sure nothing was moving easily. and i probably had to redo my timing 5x or so before i finally got it spot on and buttoned it all up. and sure nuff on the first crank all was well. just keep testing and re-testing and meticlously checking. theres no need to take it to a shop.

and doing the timing 2x in a weekend isnt that much. iv done it 2-3x in one day. you have plenty of time till the 9th to get it finished, you just need to get out there and get it done and get it done right. details, details, details

Mine was the same way...all the way loose, yet the belt still wouldn't get over it. After some ingenuity, managed to get the belt on, but it was loose then, tightened up the tensioner with previously mentioned 1/4" drive and it was nice and snug. Although it was an uber pain in my arse...it seemed to idle fine in the end. Now it's up to the coolant leak whether or not I've got to do it all over again.

I did my timing with my motor on a stand :P

easy as pie

Originally posted by Blizare
I did my timing with my motor on a stand :P easy as pie

X 2.865

3rd time is a charm, i got mine after timing it 3 times. Was a pain in the ass to keep doing it over, but runs great now.

I figure Ill take it to Erics shop and get it done there when I get off of work today..
Ill be there the entire time watching/helping Rodney take the car apart and timing it...
Although I trust them, I still dont fully trust anyone with my 2gnt, especially of they dont own one...
Ill be learning and watching like a hawk at the same time...
not that theyve done anything wrong or ever screwed me, I just have trust issues with shops generally...

We'll see what happens...
hope dohc hondas are similar...
hopefully my pistons and valves didnt have a meeting. I didnt hear anything crashing in there when I turned in over manually...

thanks for the feedback. Ill post the verdict tomorrow...

Did the timing over and runs fine... :-)