Well my my Volvo 850 GLT that I have had for 6 months has just hit 140k. Well for someone reason Im paranoid that the timing belt may snap and thatIm on borrowed time.I have since stop driving the car and its sitting in the drive way. Yes it still runs perfect and I want to keep this car for years to come.

Since I don't have any records on anything and the previous owner is too dumb to remember anything about the car.

Will a timing alone be ok to change or am im going to need aditional parts? I went yesterday and bought the timing belt from the Volvo dealer, the rep did recomend the timing belt tensioner dampner but said that should be it..

Also is this something I can handle in a days work? I don't have much experience on Volvos. I have tho pulled motors,replaced head gaskets,done clutch jobs and other stuff but on Mustangs only.... I hate to get myself into something I can't tackle.. or hate to fugg it up....

 

Standard procedure is to replace the the tensioner, tensioner roller, water pump, and idler roller along, of course, with the belt on every other timing belt change.

Assuming that your original belt change was around 70k this falls into the every other category.

It runs the price up significantly and I fretted over whether it was really necessary on my son's '96 but at the end of the day I bit the bullet and changed everything out. It is good in the piece of mind department.

On my wife's old Chrysler timing belt interval was 100k and the water pump seized at 100,105 miles and took the belt with it. Thank God that was a full clearance engine. The 850's are all interference engines.

It is not a bad job and you can certainly get it all done in a few hours if you are handy with a wrench. The biggest problem is clearance depth from the face of the motor to the shock tower and the fender well. There is not sufficient room to get a ratchet and a torx bit in place to remove and replace the tensioner roller. I used a wrench on the torx bit and it worked OK. I have no idea how you actually torque it to spec. since there is no way you can get a torque wrench to fit in there. I just got it good and tight.

The idler roller is easy and the water pump isn't that bad so log as you pre-glue the gasket on the pump with some RTV.

Theother trick is to get the new belt good and taught from the crankshaft, across the idler, to the intake cam sprocket. The rest of it threads around with relative ease.

Lastly, I crank the engine clockwise 4 revolutions when I am done and double check the timing marks again after everything is replaced. It is easy to get off a tooth.

...Lee

 

I have owned Volvos for 22 years and have never changed a Water Pump. Maybe I've just been lucky, but the Independent Volvo mechanic I use does not change them as normal practice either. Says they rarely go bad. Not saying it's wrong to change them, but based on experience I would not unless it's leaking.

 

Hmm I guess Ill be buying all the additional parts this coming week. My only concern is lining up the cams to the crank.. As far as taking it apart that should be a breeze...

Hmm I guess it couldn't hurt to replace the water pump......

 

Lining up the cams is easy, the timing marks are very visible and you line them up with the V notches. Just pull the plugs and crank the engineby hand until the marks line up. The crank is an entirely different story. The mark is very small and not readily visible. I was lucky on my son's car in that whoever last changedthe belthighlightedthe markwith a marker. In his case there was a mark on the harmonic balancer. I've seen pictures of others that have an odd shaped groove in the sprocket to mark #1 TDC.

...Lee

 

I've seen about lining up the timing marks with the V notches... But the Crank Im totally lost on.. Ill keep reading.

 

Use correction fluid to enhance the v-mark on the crank pulley, as well as on the cam pulleys.

Mine actually had a botch on the crank pulley's timing gear, large enough to keep an eye on; the opposite side of the tiny v-groove, closer to the crank pulley.

If the tensioner pulley's Torx screw comes off without an effort, I would say that one alone is lucky[8D].


JPN

 

The mark on the crank is pretty easy to see.
Also it will help if you remove the outer part of the crank pulley there is also a mark there.

 

I can not see the crank mark at all personally, but my eyesight ain't the best I have admit. Another way to do it is to pull the plug on cylinder #1 (closest to the belt), put a screwdriver or something down resting on the top of the piston and turn the engine over by hand until the screwdriver or whatever is at it's highest point. That is Top Dead Center (TDC) and the crank mark should be lined up at this point. If you have the cam marks lined up and #1 is not at TDC, you are off by 180 degrees so turn if over again until the cams are lined up again and that should be TDC.

 

Ok so If I pull the plug and when the top of the screw driver reaches the highest point, that should be TDC? Now after I get TDC do I line up the Cam pulleys to the "V's" on the cover and throw the belt on? Is that more or less correct?

 

Well my son in law and I just did one yesterday. What we did (I should say he did) was get everything all lined up with the cam marks and the #1 piston at TDC before doing anything else. Then he took some white out (correction fluid) and marked the marks clearer on the cam sensor and put a couple reference marks on the crank and another mark on the cams with a corresponding mark on the side. Then he took everything apart and to be honest nothing even moved so he just put the belt back on. With all the marks though we knew nothing moved. I looked and looked and could not see the mark on the crank and neither did he. I don't know if you an get the crank pulley off though without an air gun.

 

Hey now ,

Try one of these. A simple hand wrench or socket can be used and is recommended.

http://www.mn12performance.com/mn12h...cer-puller.JPG

Hope this helps.


Rich.

[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

Thanks for all the help and advice... I ordered the parts today so everything should be here by the weekend.. Today I did take off the timing cover just to get a lot.. It doesnt seem too hard, just a tight working space.

I took some pics.. Everything is still put together.. I tried to line up the timing marks on the cam pulleys.. I was simply turning the motor over a few times with the key but this is the closest I came.. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics..

Cam Pic



I believe that is a mark on the Crank.. Is this the mark Im looking for ?

 

As for the camshafts, yes they are the timing marks and you want to line them up with the plastic cover grooves I indicated with red arrows.

As for the crank, I think that is the botch that I've been referring to, which no one else seems to have found it. Most people try to look for smaller (close to invisible), micro-width vee mark closer to the engine block. But if the engine has been running fine, you can mark the crank position with correction fluid, once you've lined up both camshafts.


JPN

[IMG]local://upfiles/6892/0F3F8E69618E4FAE8D1F4384DCB3DC17.jpg[/IMG]

 

Well I got home and seen my package from IPD sitting there.. I said what the heck and decided to START the timing belt. Well 3 hours later I was done and pulling it out of the drive way.. Wasn't as hard as I thought..I fabbed a tool to remove the timing pulley tension out with the T45 and used a trick with 3 quarters to get the Serp belt off...... Thanks for all the help. For the last 10 days I have been driving my Saleen Mustang and damm I forgot how bad the gas was on that car...

 

Glad you got it done. It does sound worse than it really is.

 

That d@mn Torx for the tensioner pulley........[8D]. (I shouldget over bynow)


JPN

 

yeah that was kinda of a pain. What I did was use the t45 and a cresent wrench and some electrical tape... Worked perfect and didnt even strip it.....

 

I loved driving my Foxbody.
With the 2.63's was still getting 25-27 MPG same as the 850.

 

2.63s Damm what a gear.. In my Mustang Im running a 4.10...