This might be an appropriate place to relate my experience of installing a timing belt on my 1UZ, which just took the better part of 12 hours....
If I had this timing belt on once, I had it on two dozen times, and I think I’ve put 10K miles on this engine already, one rotation at a time.
“What’s so difficult about putting a timing belt on” you ask? Nothing ordinarily, but I’ve come to believe this timing belt was possessed by demons…..
It looked innocent enough at first – it had the nice Toyota name and P/N on it, and plenty of other official looking writing, but then I noticed it didn’t have any timing marks on it. Zip, nada, rien. OK, no big deal, I’ve installed belts without marks before. So that’s when the fun began – I thought I could beat the belt, but instead I played right into its hands.
So I first lined my crank mark up with the dot on the oil pump, then lined up the cam drives with their marks, slipped the belt on, popped the release on the tensioner and thought everything was golden. (Oh what a twisted sense of humor this belt had!) Rotated the crankshaft twice, then noticed the left bank cam wasn’t lining up “quite right” anymore…hmmm, no matter, I’ll just pop the belt off and do it again, then the right bank wasn’t lining up right, so I did it again, and again, and again, and ……. Finally after the better part of 6 hours, I called a truce because 1) I just didn’t have any power left in my arms to rotate the engine anymore 2) At every turn, this devilish belt seemed to outwit me, and 3) My 56 year old eyes were playing tricks on me and I couldn’t see to line “anything” up anymore (not that the copious amounts of Mexican beer I was inhaling were helping my vision, but at least they were keeping me sedated enough that I didn’t set the whole dam garage on fire). So I called it quits and spent a fitful night dreaming that I was a slave rower on a Roman galley, but instead of an oar, I had a Ridgid strap wrench, and I was turning, and turning, and turning my life away……
Morning comes and I decide to take stock of what’s going on:
1)This “Toyota” timing belt came to me with no timing marks at all
2) Its fit was a helluva lot looser than I was comfortable with – even with the tensioner released, there seemed to be enough slack that it was liable to jump a tooth after it got broken in.
3)The edges of the belt seemed to be made inconsistently – in some areas, the rubber was missing and the cords were showing through, while in other areas, the rubber was hiding the cords.
“Hmmmm”, says I. “I wonder if I’ve got a Chinese copy instead of the real thing?”
Down to the local Beck Arnley parts store I go, and pick up a Gates belt for the 1UZ. Voila, it has timing marks on it! Rush home, and rip the belt from Hell off, line up my crank and cam marks, slip the Gates belt on and LO AND BEHOLD the timing marks line up! YES……THANK YOU LORD!!!! Put the tensioner back on and I can see the difference in the belt tension already – I can barely get the tensioner lined up. This puppy is TIGHT! Rotate the crank 720 degrees, and anxiously check the cam marks again and they’re RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!
Do a little jig around the motor singing, “Who’s your daddy now, beeeeaaaach?”
Moral of this story: Never EVER try to install a "Toyota" timing belt which doesn’t have timing marks on it, and if it doesn’t feel right the 1st through 5th time, chances are it ain’t gonna feel right the next 10 times either……
