# damn timing belts!



## black bnr32 (Jan 20, 2011)

hey guys,

Unfortunately, my car threw a timing belt. Is it worth my time to put a new belt on in order to do a compression test? Or, should i just assume the worst and pull the head off (to replace bent valves, etc.) I'm tempted to put a new belt on and hope for the best as it died while idling. This gives me hope that the pistons didn't touch any valves.


----------



## skylinegts2gtr (Jan 24, 2007)

give it a go: all it would cost you is time and a belt!


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

Since you need a belt anyway, you could try it....

The belt is most likely to snap while at idle or just setting off at low revs. Its when the cams put most strain on the belt.


----------



## stephenwap (Mar 26, 2010)

My brother threw a belt on his 300zx tt a few years ago and manage to get away with it, he had the engine stripped and there were no bent valves so I'd give it a go
Steve


----------



## enshiu (Aug 20, 2010)

buying reinforced belts instead of standard ones. I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


----------



## frostmotorsport (Aug 10, 2007)

mine did the same thing - complete engine rebuild. was idling and the crank sprocket ate the teeth off and bam. Interference engine so no matter how lucky you think you might be, it's at least head rebuild time 

sorry...


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

enshiu said:


> I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


I'm interested to hear about this, what do you mean by "throw" a belt? de-rail?, break?, stretch and jump teeth? and how does the power the enigne makes cause it?

Rob


----------



## Talski (Apr 7, 2010)

enshiu said:


> buying reinforced belts instead of standard ones. I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


Hi,

Are there any reinforced belts you've used yourself / would recommend?

cheers


----------



## tarmac terror (Jul 16, 2003)

enshiu said:


> buying reinforced belts instead of standard ones. I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


LOL. I was wondering when you would respond to that Rob .... 
I'm with you on this and to prove it I have just replaced my own belt with a £35 Dayco belt!! How its remotely good value to spend over £100 on a 'strengthened" belt is, quite frankly, beyond me!!

TT


----------



## RadoGTST (Jul 5, 2010)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> I'm interested to hear about this, what do you mean by "throw" a belt? de-rail?, break?, stretch and jump teeth? and how does the power the enigne makes cause it?
> 
> Rob


LOL
It's good to have someone competent around to comment on subject


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> I'm interested to hear about this, what do you mean by "throw" a belt? de-rail?, break?, stretch and jump teeth? and how does the power the enigne makes cause it?
> 
> Rob


I was wondering the same, as really the only things that make any real difference to the belt will be camshaft profile/spring strength and engine revs... I decided since im stock on both for now a stock belt is fine despite the higher power.


----------



## MIKEGTR (Jul 8, 2005)

enshiu said:


> buying reinforced belts instead of standard ones. I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


When you say you have seen 'many', exactly how many? or is this another one of your bullshit posts :thumbsup:


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

I've never had a problem using stock belts at big rpm with pretty strong springs/big cams, maybe its like the time I was told it was perfectly normal/common to blow out the rear frost plug from the head :clap:


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> maybe its like the time I was told it was perfectly normal/common to blow out the rear frost plug from the head :clap:


Why would anyone tell you that ? What was their reasoning ? My guess is, they used the wrong plug, as its not quite a standard size is it ?

I suspect a lot of these things come about by one person hearing or experiencing one thing on one car and then expanding it to suggest it always happens on all cars of that type.

Its like saying All R35`s smash gearboxes up.....


----------



## TAZZMAXX (Mar 9, 2010)

I'd put money on it that most toothed belt failures are down to not being changed at the appropriate interval or tensioner failure, not the fact that they aren't purple.


----------



## MikeyB571 (Feb 9, 2010)

Sorry to take a side topic on this, but would a reinforced belt help with timing scatter?


----------



## Corsa1 (Sep 8, 2003)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> I'm interested to hear about this, what do you mean by "throw" a belt? de-rail?, break?, stretch and jump teeth? and how does the power the enigne makes cause it?
> 
> Rob


Rob its a well known fact that we make more power that you do, thats why the belts come off LOL:thumbsup:


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

TAZZMAXX said:


> I'd put money on it that most toothed belt failures are down to not being changed at the appropriate interval or tensioner failure, not the fact that they aren't purple.


Agreed.

Every single one I have ever had to sort was due to it not being changed at the correct mileage. I would guess I have seen around 12 or more that have failed that way. Almost always while cranking or at idle, And I have seen a few that have jumped teeth due to tensioner or waterpump problems, but these dont usually damage the valves as the engine usually cuts out and wont restart once its a tooth or two off.


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

Marky_GTSt said:


> Why would anyone tell you that ? What was their reasoning ? My guess is, they used the wrong plug, as its not quite a standard size is it ?


I *KNOW* its not common, or even uncommon/rare for that matter, it had the right plug etc, it was just "interesting" to hear it being portrayed as being par for the course under the circumstances when we knew exactly why it had happened. 

I guess one reason sounded better than the other.:nervous:


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> I *KNOW* its not common, or even uncommon/rare for that matter, it had the right plug etc, it was just "interesting" to hear it being portrayed as being par for the course under the circumstances when we knew exactly why it had happened.
> 
> I guess one reason sounded better than the other.:nervous:


Ah, so you had one pop out and somebody told you it was normal ?


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

[email protected] said:


> Rob its a well known fact that we make more power that you do, thats why the belts come off LOL:thumbsup:


Oh for sure, we all know that mate, just no pictures yet to prove it .

Snapping belts from Brute power is common and perfectly normal too don't you know, lol.


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

Marky_GTSt said:


> Ah, so you had one pop out and somebody told you it was normal ?


No, I didn't have one pop out.

Someone else had one pop out and then explained it was perfectly normal when pushing hard and not of concern at all.

You'd be surprised how many people lapped up that explaination though, maybe they hadn't considered the pressure required to get a frost plug to blow out and how that pressure might have got there.


----------



## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> No, I didn't have one pop out.
> 
> Someone else had one pop out and then explained it was perfectly normal when pushing hard and not of concern at all.
> 
> You'd be surprised how many people lapped up that explaination though.


Do i recall this happening at TOTB one of the years?


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

So what caused it then ? Im intrigued


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

mattysupra said:


> Do i recall this happening at TOTB one of the years?


Maybe, but my memory aint what it use to be.


----------



## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

Marky_GTSt said:


> So what caused it then ? Im intrigued




He cant remember mate. His memory isnt what it used to be :nervous:


----------



## Marky_GTSt (Dec 31, 2005)

mattysupra said:


> He cant remember mate. His memory isnt what it used to be :nervous:


I forgot what we where talking about.....


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

mattysupra said:


> He cant remember mate. His memory isnt what it used to be :nervous:


I said I can't remember "where" it happened, not "why" it happened


----------



## TAZZMAXX (Mar 9, 2010)

I think we could do with Glenn contributing to this thread as we're all shooting in the dark a bit


----------



## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> I said I can't remember "where" it happened, not "why" it happened


LOL :thumbsup:


----------



## rb30r34 (Jun 30, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Rob its a well known fact that we make more power that you do, thats why the belts come off LOL:thumbsup:


Andys engines are like fight club. They are meant to be a secret. The only difference is that in the movie they all talked about fight club, where as everyone seems to follow the rules with andys engines because nobody ever hears shit.


----------



## asiasi (Dec 22, 2007)

Yesterday while driving at 50mph i suddenly heard a clack clack clack from the top of the engine,lasted about 5 seconds,oil pressure was 5 bar then engine cut out.

Does this sound like timing issue, and could the noise be the valves hitting the piston.

Any ideas,cheers.


----------



## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

asiasi said:


> Yesterday while driving at 50mph i suddenly heard a clack clack clack from the top of the engine,lasted about 5 seconds,oil pressure was 5 bar then engine cut out.
> 
> Does this sound like timing issue, and could the noise be the valves hitting the piston.
> 
> Any ideas,cheers.




my guess is that you have a flat tyre


----------



## GT-R Glenn (Nov 9, 2002)

Righto, as much as it pains me to agree with Rob, My bullshit meter went off the scale when I read that.

Then after some consideration and rational thought, I came to the conclusion it***8217;s probably a geographical anomaly caused by the fact that our engines are actually upside down compared to the northern hemisphere.
Therefore, there is more tension of the belt on the crankshaft, thus limiting the ***8220;throwability***8221; to a level that doesn***8217;t register on our post failure analysis documentation.

Which is why we think its bollocks ...


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

GT-R Glenn said:


> Righto, as much as it pains me to agree with Rob, My bullshit meter went off the scale when I read that.


Can you be very specific what you read that lead to this post, I think I'm going to need to save this, I thought this day would never come opcorn:


----------



## deep_space (Jan 27, 2010)

R.I.P.S NZ said:


> Can you be very specific what you read that lead to this post, I think I'm going to need to save this, I thought this day would never come opcorn:


opcorn::bowdown1:


----------



## GT-R Glenn (Nov 9, 2002)

> I have seen many RBs throwing their belt because of an overpowered engine and a standard belt.


Try and pay attention Rob


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

GT-R Glenn said:


> Try and pay attention Rob


Come on, lol. that was ages ago in the thread, a simple quote would have saved all the hassle. :chuckle:


----------



## GT-R Glenn (Nov 9, 2002)

Well , its not my fault a whole lot of people posted waddling off on a tangent before I got a chance to reply is it ....
In future, please reserve me a spot to reply prior to subject changing ...


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

hahaha, will do.


----------



## signalr32 (Mar 21, 2011)

With all that said.. My timing belt makes a loud hum. ???


----------



## torra (Mar 11, 2008)

asiasi said:


> Yesterday while driving at 50mph i suddenly heard a clack clack clack from the top of the engine,lasted about 5 seconds,oil pressure was 5 bar then engine cut out.
> 
> Does this sound like timing issue, and could the noise be the valves hitting the piston.
> 
> Any ideas,cheers.


Sounds to me like the Waffle sprocket......


----------



## asiasi (Dec 22, 2007)

OK i know my description was not very technical,but i was just wondering if i had timing jump.

I have never had a breakdown like it very strange.

Mattysupra defo not a flat tyre :chuckle: but at least it goes round corners :thumbsup:


----------



## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

signalr32 said:


> With all that said.. My timing belt makes a loud hum. ???


Probably too tight


----------



## asiasi (Dec 22, 2007)

...


----------



## majestic (May 3, 2010)

asiasi, probably too many stickers on car , or would it be that cheap number plate ?


----------



## asiasi (Dec 22, 2007)

majestic said:


> asiasi, probably too many stickers on car , or would it be that cheap number plate ?


Yeah mate,ill wait for another racist PM !


----------



## black bnr32 (Jan 20, 2011)

bent some valves, but i did decide to put another belt on and compression test it first


----------

