Just to let everyone know. Not as hard as I thought. Replaced the
timing belt, water pump, and the surp. belt, and it runs fine.

Ignore Braxton's advice, his engine and your engine are very different.

RWD has good advice except for his description of the timing marks.

There are factory marks on the cam gears and on the crank shaft. The crank shaft mark is fairly easy to find, remove any grime and it becomes evident. The cam gear marks are faint at best, I would start out by finding the crank gear mark, move it to alignment on the oil pump housing, then search for the cam gear marks, if you need to turn the crank another 360 degrees and look for the cam gear marks again. There will be in only one of two possible positions.

To me the hardest part of the job is finding the marks. Once you are finished you might want to mark the cams a little better than the factory did. The cams gear marks line up with the timing belt cover top, there are two squared notches in the cover, about where RWD advises.

With everything on it's correct mark, all pistons are down in the bores, this would allow for rotation of the cams without fear of damage, but only if all were set correctly, so there is no need or desire to find TDC.

RWD's advice on going two complete hand revolutions is critical, if you don't have the correct size socket for the crank nut, then remove the spark plugs and turn the engine over by hand.

DanR '94 964 353,000 miles (119,000 on the new engine)
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DanR

I have changed the T belts on our 92 and 97 960s a number of times with no difficulty. As has been mentioned, it is significantly different than the red block 4 cylinder engines, but it is still easy to do. There is a great deal of information on the FAQs regarding the process. While I don not have much good to say about the Chilton manual, it does cover the process as well.
The number one thing to keep in mind is that it is CRITICAL that you do not rotate the crank while the belt is off, or in the wrong position.
John D.

Hello, I'm currently rebuilding the engine on my son's '92 940gl, so I hope I can help. On "ALL" timing sprockets there should be a mark to help find TDC (top dead center) for #1 piston, but what I suggest is go to a local welding supply shop and get a PAINT MARKING PEN. When you think you're all aligned up, with the paint pen, mark tops and bottoms of ALL sprockets to exact alignment marks you will make on inner timing belt cover or block. Also, mark the timing belt itself on each sprocket with a line, this way you'll know how many teeth on belt in between each sprocket. What I will do is mark my new belt exactly the same way as I marked my old belt making sure that sprocket marks are aligned up once again EXACTLY. With the tensioner loose-re-apply the belt. All your marks will help you. Yes, it is time consuming, but if I can do this then I know anyone can. Good Luck--

These engines are far more complicated than the old 4 cyl and this procedure is not for the faint of heart. First be aware that this engine is a interferance engine so if you get it wrong, you really get it wrong. Set up your cam pullies so that when you are on the crankshaft timing mark the cam marks should be positioned with the left cam (on your right facing the engine) in approx the 1:00 to 1:30 oclock position. This will put the right cam (on the left facing the engine) in approx the 10:30 to 11:00 oclock position. These should line up with points on the plastic shroud over the pullies, niether of the engines I did had any marks so you have to make a mark with a white pen or whatever for reassembly. Then procede to remove the spring loaded tensioner at the bottom of the engine in behind the damper pulley. You can release it by undoing the retainer bolts and slipping off the timing belt. Be very careful while doing all this that none of the pullies get accidentally bumped. When you have removed the spring loaded tensioner place it in a vice and compress the spring. When it is fully compressed slip a pin in the hole to hold the tension until you get it back into the engine. Replace the belt and then reinstall the tensioner. After it is in place and you are reasonably certain everything is lined up, pull the pin to retension the belt. After checking your marks and the timing mark put a big socket on the crank pulley and slowly turn the engine two or three times past all the marks to check the alignment and to make sure you have no valve interferance. Now this is how I did it and I take no responsibility for any failure you may have with this. I strongly recommend that if you don't feel confident, don't do it yourself. A couple of hundred is cheap compared to replacing Volvo valves at about $400 a pop.