[Shotimes] Timing belt life

[Leigh Smith]

I definately agree with George on this one. The SHO timing belts are 
very tough. Mine also went 125K with no problems, not once but twice.

As a comparison my 93 Villager with the 3.0 Nissan motor has a timing 
belt that is only 3/4 of an inch wide. That bugger had 3 inches of 
"slack" in it at 77k when I changed it. It was supposed to have been 
changed at 60K. But obviously the first owner didn't know/care...and 
they are an INTERFERENCE engine. (lots of bent valves if it broke).

The SHO belt must be 2 inches wide. (3X the Nissan). I know it revs 
higher, but unless you are racing the car exclusively, 60k is Ford's way 
of being too conservative. And even they saw fit to change that to 100k 
on the Gen IIs. 100k must be 6-10 yrs for most folks. At that point I 
think I would just change it for old age. I'd worry more about it 
dry-rotting and chunking at that point. My SHO belt didn't even have any 
slack in it at 125k.

Lee

George Fourchy wrote:

>On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 18:59:01 -0400, snapper@bellsouth.net wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I always wonder how you really know they changed it?
>>    
>>
>
>A worn timing belt will have three main signs you can read....the ends of the teeth
>will begin to be rounded at the very tops, it can stretch, and after it has been in
>there for 50 or 60K miles, you won't be able to read the writing on the
>backside....the tensioner will finally rub it out.   A belt that I had that went 45K
>was still readable, however....YMMV.
>
>As long as it hasn't stretched, and the teeth are NOT rounded, it is still
>servicable.  A street car that isn't taken to redline every day will keep its belt
>servicable for at least 135K....that's how far my first one went, and it would have
>gone farther.  You can check for stretching by taking the upper timing belt cover
>off...easy to do, just remove the end of the intake with the DIS on it, and then
>take the 7 or so small bolts out.  Then rotate the engine to TDC with a wrench on
>the crank bolt (or the alternator nut!!!!!!!!!), and see where the marks on the cam
>sprockets are compared to the marks on the metal backing plate.  If they are nowhere
>near, rotate the engine one more time around.  If they line up and the teeth are not
>rounded off, put it back together and drive it.
>
>George
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