DIYer Timing Belt

[pbeatty]

I thought I would put in my issues / things changing the timing belt for anybody who is considering doing it themselves - I am by no means a mechanic but I have been working on my own cars now doing most mechanical work for the last 5 years so I have a somewhat general idea of how to do things. I hit 10 years and 150k miles so the belt was needing to be done -overall the condition of the belt was fine but still I would prefer to avoid any issues -

The good:

- It wasn't nearly as complicated as some of the other posts have made it sound - I definitely took my time and wasn't in any rush to get the car back on the road -
- I didn't have any issues removing anything or putting anything back on -
- After I put everything back on I didn't have any codes


Insights:
- You do have to remove the passenger CV axle in order to access the timing bolt on the side of the block - It wasn't so much a deal for me since I was planning on changing the axle seals anyway since mine were leaking -
- I would highly recommend getting the flywheel locking tool - from my understanding these are interference engines and I wouldn't want to mess around with the crank moving at all and causing catastrophic head and piston damage -
- Highly recommend changing your water pump and timing belt tensioner while you are in there as well -
- I cleaned my intake valves while I had the manifold off, they weren't too bad but I did notice that I had less stuttering at WOT after doing it -
- The torque on the crankshaft bolt was intense but not as bad as some people made it out to be - I had the car pretty high up on my 6 ton jack stands so I was able to get a cheater bar in for the last 90 and 15 degree adjustments.

The bad:
- I would plan on the harmonic balancer being stuck on there - I had to modify a 2 arm puller since there is pretty limited room to get a 3 arm puller in there -

Hope this helps anybody else looking to safe 1000$K which is what I was quoted from my local shop.
Cheers

 

[dhminer]

For $1k I’d have someone else do it all day. I got quoted $2700 for water pump, oil pump, timing belt.

 

[pbeatty]

For $1k I’d have someone else do it all day. I got quoted $2700 for water pump, oil pump, timing belt.

Yeah of course if I had the money to pay someone then I would have happily had someone else, but money is tight.

 

[Cneu]

Just to add some details, my timing belt by a dealership was about $1500 installed. This is in Oregon.

 

[rallytaff]

I paid around $2,200 to have mine done. My mechanic has spent over 20 yrs building Ford engines and it runs like new!

 

[HBFiST2]

Hey Pbeatty thank you for the good write up and giving me a little more confidence to try this myself! I just have a couple questions for you before I bite the bullet:
How high are we talking that you lifted the car up? I only have some 2 ton jack stands and a small jack, I'm not sure I can get it too high with those.

Also, what is your technique for lifting in order to get the car up on 4 stands? I've only ever done front up or rear up for the work I've done so far.

And cleaning the intake valves, what did you use for that? Is there a special cleaner to use or any caution I need to take?

Going to be replacing the axle seals as well as I think I got a pretty bad leak too!

Thank you in advance!