Timing Belt Question

I like Brian's sardonic view on the F-car world. I too have had my share of college educated employees that offered no hope or evidence for meaningful thought. I've had some damn smart ones too....

I just changed the belts on my 550, 6 years old. They look to be very lightly worn, ditto for the bearings. The same cannot be said for the compressor, which was in need of a rebuild.

 

I had a Timing Belt slip after 430,000 miles on a 91 accord. It's not the belt that's of much concern, but what it travels on.

 

That's a lotta miles.

 

My timming belts are named timmy.

 

http://youtu.be/ZO9Kt9-MFgM

 

I bet you wish you had replaced that belt every 3 years!!!!!

 

BINGO!

 

Fantastic post. Direct. To the point. No attitude. No hostility. Just information.

 

Yes

7 years about 12000 miles since belt change in 355.
Oil change every year.

Car runs great.

 

I have repaired two, one a 308 and the other was a Testarossa.

 

Do you mean engine damage due to belt failure? May we have a bit more info on the two?
Thanks,

 

Richard- Let me see if we can make a wild guess. Belt broke, 8-24 valves bent, valve job required.

Add another. One of our 550 owners bought his 550 just after having had 24 valves bent and replaced. Using the old guidance of 30,000 miles, that 550 had a bit over 29,500 miles on her and was already scheduled for a belt change when one broke. Fickle finger of fate.

 

How much will an engine rebuild or a used motor cost compared to a belt change?

 

Prey tell?

 

Ok I'm sold on this service. So where do you purchase these "timming belts".

 

I have changed original belts on 308s, and I have had to rip engines apart after a failure of the belt drive system.

5 years is a good rule. Although just this month I changed 12 year old belts on a 328.

You can roll the dice and get lucky, or you may loose it all. It's a gamble anything after 5 years IMHO. If your 308 has plastic cam gears, then that is another point of concern to consider. They do wear out.

 

Tiimm sells them at a discount to FChat members.

 

Its not the timming belts that worry us, its the baarings.

 

Hi. Yes. My Mondial had a broken belt on the rear bank at one point in its history before I got it. Two exhaust valves had hit the top of a piston, leaving 2 small marks and their heads bent slightly. My guess that is must have been an idle or start-up event as it left no further damage. Only the belts were replaced at the time without checking for other damage. I found out when I did the valve guides and seals during the engine rebuild a few years back. New valves, guides and seals went in and all the valves were reground slightly. The piston damage was removed were higher than the original surface and smoothed out for the rest, very minimal luckily. Car runs great since, all cylinders have very similar compression and the emissions are within spec.

 

Yes, engine damage repair. Valves on both engines. It happened on start up (both) so the damage was far less than it could have been.

 

But yes or no doesn't tell you anything, "where's the data"? There are too many variables as to why a belt broke, and the extent of damage as well (based on operating parameters).

Hence the problem with the search function.

 

The previous owner of my 328 had a belt failure on the right cilinder bank of the car.
The cause was a leaking (or burst) oil cooler hose.
The exhaust camshaft outher bearing seized from oil starvation.
Valves hit the pistons leaving marks behind. Plus a scratch in de cilinder (valve came off?)
Plus a conrod bearing failure a few years later (!!). Just knock. No further damage. Crank repaired, new bearings.

Everything repaired. Car runs fine for 12 years and counting.
During a camseal replacement I noticed this camshaft was still rotating heavy. To much friction compaired to the other cams.
Polished the outher bearing. Now it turns without extra friction.
When you turn the cams by hand they should flip over to the next position (first pistons ↓ ).

 

I replaced the timing belts in my F355 after 10 years. They had about 30 k miles on them and looked great.

 

What did the rest of the parts look like (tensioners, bearings, water pump, etc)

 

I have.

In fact it happened to the very first 308 GTSi I ever saw in the flesh back in 1982.

He made it about 4 miles from the shop before it let go. This was around 1985 or 86. He never drove the car again and it sat in his driveway near my house for about 8 years. The paint turned orange and it was finally hauled off for a Chevy 350 conversion back in about 1993 or 1994.

I was just talking about that car last week at dinner with someone who knew the guy that bought it.