Well, here's an update. I did the timing belt this past Saturday. I would encourage anyone that is any bit of a DIY'er to do this as it wasn't that bad, and it saved me several hundreds of dollars. However, only if you prepare for it with the right tools, and watch Jason’s video from a few posts back, several times. What is necessary is a 1/2" drive air impact gun with a 30mm and 10mm socket. Also a #50 and #60 torx bit on a 3/8 drive ratchett, a 6mm allen wrench, and a handful of metric sockets and wrenches. A torque wrench capable of 133 ft. lbs. and a 15" long or longer extension for it. 10mm wrench and sockets were the most used tools. All the other tools I used were normal things. It was very tight quarters.
1. Remove the passenger side inner fender lining.
2. Remove the top piece of plastic covering the timing belt. Support the motor underneath with a floor jack with a block of wood on it under the passenger side and remove the motor mount on the fender well on the passenger side.
3. Remove the a/c belt and the alternator belt
4. Remove all the plastic timing belt covers. There’s also a small plastic cover behind the harmonic balancer. You will hear the pulley on the crank called a harmonic balancer and a crank pulley. I think they are the same thing. Watch the video. It's good but not perfect because my car is a C70 and it's different in some areas.
5. Remove the harmonic balancer with the 30mm and 10mm with the air gun.
6. Put the 30 mm nut back on just with your fingers.
7. Line up the timing marks as described on the video. The timing marks on the cam gears are easy to line up. But the one on the crank gear is next to impossible to see, even if you know what it looks like. It is two extremely tiny slits on the top rear of two of the teeth. These marks straddle the pointer on the engine. You have to remove the harmonic balancer to see the pointer on the engine.
8. The video will warn you about the gears moving and not being on their mark when you install the new belt. So, here's what I did and it worked great. Once the marks were all where they were supposed to be, and the old belt still on the car, I took a magic marker (black is fine) and put a line on each gear and on the belt at each gear that lined up with each other. So, there's 6 marks, 1 on the belt at each gear and 1 on each gear that lines up with the marks you just put on the belt. These marks don’t have to be in any particular location, just as long as they are on the gears and belt.
9. Take the 6mm allen wrench, put it in the spot for it on the tension pulley, turn it clockwise and untension the tension pulley and remove the belt.
10. Take the old belt and hold it next to the new belt and transfer the 3 marks to the new belt. Be precise here. I marked one "intake" and one "EX" just so I'd put it on right.
11. I suggest you replace the tension pulley, idler pulley, and water pump. So, drain the coolant from the radiator. I drained mine into a clean jug and reused it. It's expensive.
12. Remove the tension pulley, the idler pulley, and the water pump. I had to raise and lower the engine several times with the jack I had under it. The motor will swivel on the motor mount that is on the driver’s side.
13. Put the new idler, tensioner, and water pump on. (This takes a little longer than writing it for sure. Especially the water pump. It’s really tight and I just kept raising & lowering the motor to access the 7 bolts as needed.) And do not pull the pin on the tensioner yet. Wait until the new belt is on.
14. Put the new belt on as described on the video, with the exception that you will line up your magic marker marks, and not necessarily the timing marks. Put the belt around the crank pulley, lining up the magic marker marks, then pull it tight along the front of the engine, around the idler pulley and around the intake cam gear, lining up the magic marker marks on the cam gear and belt. If they don’t line up, turn the cam gear with the #60 torx bit, or with your hand. Then put the belt over to the exhaust cam gear, once again, lining up the magic marker marks.
15. Snake the belt around the water pump and the tensioner pulley.
16. Put the 6mm allen wrench in the tensioner pulley and turn it slightly clockwise until the pin either falls out or you take it out. Let the allen wrench go and the tensioner pulley will turn itself counter clockwise and put tension on the new belt.
17. Rotate the engine a few times clockwise with the ratchet by hand to seat the bealt and make sure everything is free.
18. Take the 30mm nut off and put the small plastic thing back on that goes behind the harmonic balancer.
19. Put the harmonic balancer back on. You don’t NEED the special Volvo crank holding tool ($75) to retorque the 30mm nut. Get one 8mm bolt that is about an inch longer than the original 4 that go on the balancer. Put 3 of the original bolts back in. Take the long one, put a washer on it, then slide a chain that will fit onto the 8mm bolt, then about 4 or 5 more washers, then put it in the last hole. Hook the other end of the chain around a good frame part somehow. (I used the lower control arm). Then torque the 30mm nut to 133 ft. lbs.
That’s pretty much it. Just put the plastics back on and the a/c and alt belt back on. This is where I broke the alt belt tensioner. Boy was I mad.
Have a drink and celebrate. For about $240, you did what most people pay $700 - $1000 for.
Oh. One more thing. You WILL be sore the next day, but it's a good sore.
