CAM BELT CHANGE

"Comfort Level" is, IMO, the practical timeframe for belt/bearing replacement! Clearly, there are folks "comfortable" with every two-three years and there are those "comfortable" with far longer time frames. New belts were installed by the seller's shop a few days before I drove away with my "new" 328 in Aug, '08. I've replaced the belts/bearings three times since then -roughly 5 year intervals. If you were to ask me if I thought they were due for replacement on examining the used belts/bearings during any of the changes, I'd say, "No." But my comfort level is five years (give or take a bit).

 

I use Hill bearings and Dayco belts and replace them every 6-7 years…been doing this on my 328 for 32 years.

I change the oil every 18 months and replace the filter every other oil change.

I have 6 cars to maintain so doing it any more frequently would drive me to drink (more).

Alan
N.J.

 

While this was very common "back in the day", and is probably a benign practice, doing this always seemed to me like putting on yesterday's underwear, i.e. I'm not doing it unless I have no choice

 

Uh Oh...sounds like I should be changing underwear more often...

 

The best advice the internet has to offer and worth every penny you paid yet not one single word on the most important issue.

Your 76 has smaller lower drive bearings than 90% of the V8 Ferraris that followed it and need to be scrutinized very carefully once the belts are off. They can be changed using some special purpose tools with the engine installed. If it was my car and I was not well versed in their history they would be part of the job .

 

How often do people change the tensioner spring ?

 

I changed mine with a belt swap last year. That would be the first time in 41 years.

 

Not once in 47 years on hundreds of cars.

Why on earth would I?

 

Every 30 years, like clockwork.

Alan
N.J.

 

One thing to inspect very carefully especially since I saw several pictures in this thread is the plastic timing gears. Many of these cars originally came with plastic timing gears on the cams. Metal hub with plastic gears. We have seen several of these fail the last few years. At this age they should be replaced with aluminum.
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i checked them no signs of wear or cracks and the previous owner had them done 15 years ago, i am planning on some engine work in the future and looking to upgrade a lot of things, but for now just straight maintenance, with all i have going on it is hard to find time to take the good girl out for a ride

 

I did my 35 year change interval of the springs. Due to stress relaxation, a spring does lose its strength after set in constant compression. My old springs were about 1/2 inch shorter than the new ones. As they are there to set the belt tension, new springs are useful for us enthusiast owners who are not as confident as the pros who set the tension by hand feel anyways.

 

I kinda get what you're saying, the really there's lots of oil left over in the motor during any oil change, a tiny bit more isn't going to change anything.

 

Keep re-tensioning your cam belts and your dreams may come true!

 

How necessary is this, really? I did my timing belt, but that was thousands of miles ago, but hadn't heard to re-tension them.

 

Reread this thread

DO NOT RE-TENSION THE CAM BELTS !

 

It's not the oil trapped in the filter that bothers me, it's the contaminates the filter picked up. As I posted earlier, not changing the filter every time is probably benign. but I still change it every time, because I just have to.

 

I'm wondering if anyone who does a belt change every 3 years no matter the miles, and religiously includes the tensioner bearings............does an oil change without the filter!!!! I just have to know.

 

And how certain are you that the 2025 spring made by who knows who is exactly the same spec as the springs made in a different country by a different contractor 50 years ago?
False sense of security.

 

Go into the search section you will find 100 answers please no more Belt questions

 

It's apparent that you should avoid these kinds of threads!!

 

Are you really saying the cogs are made of plastic?
on the Ferrari?

 

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Yep, I don't know the actual production dates that used the plastic pulleys but later 308 and early 328 have plastic pulleys molded onto a metal hub. We see them starting to show cracking from the hub outwards. The pulley in that picture is plastic.

 

So what I'm inferring from this is that early 308s and later 328s used metal (steel?) pulleys....which means the pulleys went from Metal to Plastic and back to Metal? Sounds like maybe Enzo had a little Musk streak in him - or vice-versa - using customers as beta testers for the plastic pulleys. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
- Dave

 

Same reason they used belts.....its cheap.