Broke a timing belt....

[maximase86]

....but things look promising as it looks like it broke when the car wasn't running. I arrived at the office, and the car was running fine. When I getting ready to go home, I get in, try to start the car.....and it wouldn't start....and the start seem faster than usual. Check a couple connections and tried again, nothing. My friend Ian was around, so we popped the distributor, tried starting the car....distributor isn't turning. So great. Now I gotta figure out how to get my car home.....and then try to find time to replace the timing belt....in freaking January. Talk about bad timing....it's suppose to snow a little bit this weekend.

S

[Niku-Sama]

i would perfer it braking in the winter than the dead heat of the hottest day in the summer like mine did

[maximase86]

I dunno....I think the nice mild days of spring and fall is better. The problem with winter and summer is....it's either too hot....or too cold. The thing is...the cold is probably what finally did my well over due to change timing belt.

S

[wylie-c]

Ouch, that sucks! ( don't say I didn't remind you to do it! ) Right after you just got it going again too! At least it really only takes about 2 or 3 hours to change it though, I hate seeing a nice Max down.

[maximase86]

Well it will come back...even if I need to find a cheap set of heads.

S

[wylie-c]

If it does come down to that, do I foresee a nasty whistle upon acceleration in it's future?

[maximase86]

Maybe.

S

[turboast4]

Originally Posted by maximase86

I dunno....I think the nice mild days of spring and fall is better. The problem with winter and summer is....it's either too hot....or too cold. The thing is...the cold is probably what finally did my well over due to change timing belt.

S

Yea mine is scheduled to break in April.

[maximase86]

hehe, I was like that. I just wasn't any good at predicting when it would break.

S

[Niku-Sama]

i wonder if it constricted from heating up and then cooling off and then broke.

i've always wondered how that happens with a car sitting still, it happened once where i work durring the time it took to change the oil and when the guys found out what was wrong he wanted us to flip the bill and we had nothing to do with it

[turboast4]

Well, the coefficient of thermal expansion shouldn't be enough to break it, unless it's on WAY too tight. I mean for it to break you'd be talking like 1/2 inch everytime it heated/cooled. Engineers are pretty smart, I'm sure they thought of that. The guy who had it break prolly had something seriously wrong for it to break like that.

[maximase86]

I started stripping down the front of the motor today and got the
upper timing cover off....still have to figure out how to get the
SOB out of the engine bay though. Anyway here are my findings:

The belt look good on the top portion good. The belt STILL HAD
TENSION. However looking down at the belt you can see what appears
to be chunks of belt, or teeth. Since I haven't pulled the bottom
cover yet because I still need to get the UDP out of the way to
remove the bottom cover. But to further prove my theory, I can spin
the crank by hand, and the cam shaft will not move. Also I can't
spin the camshaft by hand.

Also I noticed that there was a coat of oil on the inside of the top
cover. So I'm guessing this could potentially be some of my oil
loss...though I haven't seen the car loose huge amounts of oil
yet....but it still looses enough by the time an oil change is due.

I'm leaking coolant, first thoughts is the waterpump....but it could
be a thermostat or radiator hose. Nice thing is my coolant is
remarkably clean though....it looks almost brand new....from the
radiator and the engine block.

So here are a few things I need answered/concluded:

1. Because the camshaft isn't moving...I don't want to assume I bent
valves. Futher more, as I talked to my uncle whom has had very many
cars and is a very skilled mechanic, the likelihood of a car bending
valves on start up is very very rare. Out of the several times he
has done that, (and more noteably he's done it on a FIAT which has a
much higher piston/valve interference), not a single one has bent a
valve. His argument is this: With a starter your only spinning at
about 300 rpms or so. There isn't enough inertia to bend a
valve....especially a stainless steel valve. In order for that to
happen the car needs to be running which carries more inertia (750
or more rpms). This also explains why people can break a timing belt
with the rpms low, and go unscaved.

2. There are couple things that can attribute to my camshafts not
turning: Timing belt is snagged, the tension from the timing belt
making it difficult to turn, a seized camshaft (which could
attribute to the fact that the belt stripped of it's teeth), the cam
is ready to open a valve and all I need is more leverage to turn the
cam, or possibly a bent valve (though from the sources I've heard,
the cam should still turn with little or no resistence with a valve
being bent. For those that have replaced the timing belt, was it
difficult to the cam by hand with the belt on...and you just need a
little more leverage, or did it freely spin?

3. So anything anyone can add.?

S

[wylie-c]

Don't worry about the cam not spinning, it won't, and I've never seen one that would. There is no way you can turn a cam by hand and compress all those valve springs, way too much pressure there. If you consider that at any given time there will be a valve (or more) opening,those springs are what's holding it back. The only way I've ever turned a cam is to put the broken or old belt around the sprocket and pull on it. Had to do it on mine when I swapped belts because the cams moved when I pulled the old belt off. As for the valves not bending theory, that seems to make sense though.

[maximase86]

It's seems to make sense to me too. I've yet to actually hear someone say thier heads are useless because of a broken belt on startup. And like I said, my uncle has done it quite a few times. I guess there is a possibility....but just from what I heard....it's fairly unlikely.

S

[wylie-c]

Hopefully everything is fine and it's running again soon. When the weather warms up we should meet up again. Maybe my car will be clean this time, hehe. Oh, btw, I just had my alternator quit. Apparently the old one was still the original! No biggie, only took 40 minutes to change. Pricey bugger though!

[Nismo87SE]

Hey I have a set of ported heads from my old maxima left. However I did float the valves and bend all of them. So you'd need new valves and probably valve guides with a valve job. I had some pics of them if you want (assuming I can find them). Let me know if you want them.

Originally Posted by maximase86

It's seems to make sense to me too. I've yet to actually hear someone say thier heads are useless because of a broken belt on startup. And like I said, my uncle has done it quite a few times. I guess there is a possibility....but just from what I heard....it's fairly unlikely.

S

[maximase86]

I'll let you know. Thanks for the offer Ari!

S

[maximase86]

I will soon have most of the parts I need to do a timing belt etc. The only thing I don't have the tensioner stud, CHTS and Harness.

But here is what I got:

Timing belt
Timing belt tensioner
Timiming belt tensioner spring
Water pump
Water pump gasket
170*F Thermostat
Thermostat gasket
2 cam seals
front main seal
rear main seal
a bagel....mmmm bagel.

All of this for about $150 including shipping.

S

[Jeff92se]

Who did you order from? Nice.

[turboast4]

I'll be doing my t-belt and a variety of other things in a few weeks, so....
Couple questions:

1. Did you use the p/n in the CHTS sticky (from an '88)? And it only costs $50 for both?

2. What is the front main seal? Is that the front crank seal?

3. At Pep Boy's, we have the t-stat. It asks if you want the "reverse poppet" or not. What's the difference, and which one do I need?

4. Do you recommend cream cheese or butter for the bagels?

Thanks

[turboast4]

oh almost forgot....the t-stat at pep boys says no gasket, use RTV. Should track down a gasket anyway?

[Drjmaxx88]

Cream Cheese And Jelly!

[cardana24]

The CHTS is the correct p/n...thats what I used to order. My Nissan parts counter was showing it as something called something having to do with the water temp in the cylinder head.

Originally Posted by turboast4

I'll be doing my t-belt and a variety of other things in a few weeks, so....
Couple questions:

1. Did you use the p/n in the CHTS sticky (from an '88)? And it only costs $50 for both?

2. What is the front main seal? Is that the front crank seal?

3. At Pep Boy's, we have the t-stat. It asks if you want the "reverse poppet" or not. What's the difference, and which one do I need?

4. Do you recommend cream cheese or butter for the bagels?

Thanks

[maximase86]

Jeff: Parts-a-million.com is where I ordered. They have a warehouse in Lynnwood, so shipping is cheap is you spend under $100, and is here the next day.

Jon: 1. Haven't got the CHTS yet. 2. It is the crankseal, since I'm almost there, might as well replace it. 3. I'm not sure what the differences is on the T-stats....so I couldn't tell you. 4. I like to toast mine a little, then put peanut butter on it.
5. If there is a gasket for the something....rule of thumb is to use that over RTV in my own opinion.

S

[turboast4]

OK, thanx for the info.

[blackmaxima88]

cinnamon raisin, lightly toasted, with cream cheese, definitely. if I'm in a bind and absolutely cannot find cream cheese, I will settle for butter. but never dry. dry bagels are worthless. anyone who disagrees is obviously an inferior form of life and a waste of space, and your opinion really doesn't matter anyway.

anyway, I've never had an issue with using RTV gaskets. nissan specifies gray silicone and that's what I used for my thermostat housing and my water outlet (two different things on my engine, thermostat housing is actually at the BOTTOM rad. hose... go figure... and the water outlet looks like a little baby thermostat housing) I guess it's a matter of opinion... but the factory RTV gasket held tight for 10 years until I broke it free this past fall to replace the thermostat... I've installed dry gaskets that leaked, and people tell me to never use silicone on pre-cut gaskets.... I'm so confused!!!!!!!

today I showed someone how to reset their SENSOR light in their 87 maxima.

Dan

[krajewski]

Originally Posted by turboast4

Well, the coefficient of thermal expansion shouldn't be enough to break it, unless it's on WAY too tight. I mean for it to break you'd be talking like 1/2 inch everytime it heated/cooled. Engineers are pretty smart, I'm sure they thought of that. The guy who had it break prolly had something seriously wrong for it to break like that.

I just picked this car up a month ago and it has an honest 80K on the odometer. What is the recommended mileage for replacing the timing belt?

[wylie-c]

Originally Posted by maximase86

4. I like to toast mine a little, then put peanut butter on it.


S

Nah, toast it, butter it, and put a fried egg and a slice of spam between the two halves! MMMMmmmmm!