So it’s that time again. It may seem intimidating, but changing your own timing belt and water pump isn’t really that hard. You’ll also save a bundle by doing it yourself. I’ve done this on an engine sitting in my driveway for two reasons. The first is that I was going to use that engine anyway. The second is that it is easier to see what’s going on from a DIY perspective when all the pictures are not of random hands crammed into an engine bay. Hope this helps!

Tools:
3/8″ Rachet
1/2″ Breaker Bar
Torque Wrench
Manual for Torque Specifications and General Goodness
10mm, 12mm, 14mm 3/8″ Sockets
17mm 1/2″ Socket

Parts:
New/Remanufactured Water Pump: $28
New Timing Belt: $28
RTV: $2

Process:

1. Take everything off so that it looks like this. I didn’t show this but it’s the reverse of installation and pretty self explanatory. I stuffed my water pump hole to the block with a paper towel so junk wouldn’t get in there, by the way.

2. Look at all your parts and make sure they’re all there. They are for me.

3. Here’s your new water pump; shove some rtv into the slot where the gasket sits, and then push the gasket in. Don’t over rtv, just enough to help seal the gasket. Mine is a little sloppy cuz I just used my finger.

4. Position the water pump on the block, fit it on, and finger tighten all the screws. I had to whack at it with a hammer a little bit to get it to fit, but that’s life. Then torque everything down like you should, mine only torqued to 9 ft/lbs, so that was pretty easy to do.

5. Position your cam so that the up on the cam gear is up and the lines are aligned with the head.

6. Now position the crank so that the cutout for the key (little metal rectangle, don’t lose it, I almost did) is up and the mark on the gear matches the oil pump arrow on the block. If I need to label this picture, lemme know.

7. With the tensioner not tensed, slip the timing belt on trying to keep out slack everywhere but around the tensioner. Then tighten up the tensioner to torque, which was 33ft/lbs for mine. Now slip the crankshaft pulley back on and use it to spin the engine (counterclickwise you want to spin it) through two rotations of the crank. After this check to make sure the timing marks you set up before putting the belt on are correct. If not you need to take the belt off and redo it until they are so that the timing will be correct.

8. I got it on the first try, so yay! Start putting things back on and try to keep them clean as you do:

9. Bottom cover on (I didn’t put the crank pulley on yet because I don’t have a torque wrench powerful enough to give it the 137ft/lbs it deserves:

10. Top cover on with valve cover over top of that:

11. Me trying to get flywheel bolts of my blown block in the basement, I’ll just pull the crank and bring it in to work.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS