I'm about to change the timing belt on my daughter's car. We do not live too close, so I'd like to make sure I have all the parts on hand so I can get this done in a day, and have a day reserve in case it gets ugly as sometimes these things do. When I went to order parts, it seems I need to know the engine serial number. Read up on having my daughter get that for me, but wanted to explore other ways to do this. It all revolves around if the engine has the older hydraulic "automatic" tensioner or the newer "manual" one. I've read that if the car has the distributor version, then it is the hydraulic tensioner. Is this a "for sure thing"? I know it does have the distributor type ignition.

Can the car be converted to the newer manual tensioner, and just order those parts instead? Is there any advantage of one system over the other? I know the tensioner on the manual is replaced with the belt, and it seems good practice to replace the hydraulic unit every other time along with the tensioner and idler pulley. I’m doing the 140K change (a little late at 150K) so I am skipping the water pump this time, but will get it next time unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Any other comments or recommendations are always appreciated. Also, does anyone have the bolt pattern for the 4 bolts that hold the crankshaft harmonic balancer to the pulley? I’d like to make my own tool that Volvo recommends for the change. I do have some experience on these as I did my 01 V70 T5a about 3 months ago and wish I had that tool when re-torqueing the crankshaft nut.

Jerry
01 V70 T5a