Hello listers, hope someone's hanging around on this holiday weekend! I've just gotten started changing the timing belt on the T-5 with 130K miles, and find suspicious circumstances. The PO claims to have had the belt changed (last year), but there was no sticker on the ECU box, and some other fixes were pretty shoddy, so I thought it best to do the belt myself to have known mileage on the belt. At any rate, the engine runs just slightly rougher than our '96, but not enough to raise alarm, mpg is about 21 to 22 around town with new wires, dist cap & rotor. Haven't changed the plugs yet, they still look pretty good.

So here's the problem: as near as I can tell, the scribe mark on the crankshaft pulley is currently one valley to the left of the mark on the block when the camshaft pulleys are lined up properly. The question is, would one tooth off on the T-belt make for rough running, or would that be disaster. In other words, did I really find the right mark on the crankshaft pulley? Any wisdom greatly appreciated while I go remove the serpentine belt!

--
'96 850 and '83 244 DL both at about 200K; gone but not forgotten '81 245 and '64 Amazon

I've changed mine 3 times so far with 182k miles. I would pull the #1 spark plug and carefully insert a small rod into the hole and rock the crank shaft back and forth a bit to ensure that the cylinder is TDC. Once you've verified this, look at the cam shafts and see where they land. It is possible that the PO, when lining up the crank/cam shafts pulled it out on slot while tightening things back up with the tensioner pulley. Have you thought of replacing the pulley assy. also? Even the hydraulic arm should be replaced at a regular interval just to prevent a major mishap with this interference engine. (I replaced mine with the 2nd belt change.)
One thing I also did while changing the belt is tie the cam shafts together with a tie wrap, to prevent them from moving. They move much easier than the crank shaft when putting the new belt back on.


I'm no expert though, so don't just use my advice. See what others might have in mind to help.

Thanks for the quick response. I went ahead and buttoned everything up as best I could. Seems to be running fine, now ... I'd almost say it purrs like a kitten, but that would be a bit much. I did replace the tensioner, but the rollers seemed fine so I left those alone. Hope they'll last till next time ;-)

Compression seemed okay when I bought it last December, just hope having the timing off a bit didn't do any damage to the valves ... on to the next issue, when I remember what it was. Hope all have had a great holiday weekend!

--
'96 850 and '83 244 DL both at about 200K; gone but not forgotten '81 245 and '64 Amazon

If the crank is 1 tooth off, it will not hurt your engine and the computer will adjust the timing to compensate. Of course, you should have all of the timing marks lined up to get perfect engine response.

The hydraulic damper is usually good for 200K+ miles, but the rollers should be changed at least every other belt change.

Klaus
--
Why are Volvos so endearing? Its just a car.