Tyman187

I did some research on the Timing belt here on fourms.

But I was looking at my 91 3vze, and I was wondering to myself if its possible to change the belt without the radiator being removed.

Reason is cause my previous owner got his water pump changed out with out the timing belt..... stupid I know,
so I don't want to drain my radiator if I don't have to, but obviously will if its the case,

also am I going to need any gaskets for the cover or not, going to change the tensioner aswell.

its got 150K on it and I want to change that damn belt.

any tips or pointers anyones got that has done it on the 3vze feel free to leave them.

rbuchmann

It's been done without removing the radiator, but because you have to pull the harmonic balancer, it would be easier with the rad removed.

a51young

When I did mine, I just drained the coolant into a 5 gallon bucket and refilled it when done, you will want to have it removed unless you have tiny hands

Tyman187

well, I guess ill give it a shot, but ill end up just remove it cause I do have a set of bear paws, but thanks for the info,

a51young

Before you start, you should make sure you get the harmonic balancer puller and any other special tool you might need. I took me and my dad like 8 hours to do it, so make sure you have plenty of time for the job

scope103

You can't remove the timing cover without removing the upper radiator hose, so you're going to have to drain out at least a gallon of coolant. So keep going and empty the radiator.

You "shouldn't" need a puller for the harmonic balancer (the FSM just suggests prying very gently) unless you get the woodruff key cocked.

What you WILL need is a device to keep the crank from turning when you remove the crank bolt. There are lots and lots of excellent shop-made tools described on this site (I, of course, am partial to this one ). Some will suggest using the starter to remove the bolt. Sounds really dangerous to me, but I guess you can get it out that way. But how are you going to put the bolt back in? You need to put 181 ftlbs of torque on the bolt to install it (probably lots more to remove it initially). Some on this site have told me they just used an impact gun and ran it in until it quit. If they were using my cheap HF impact that would mean they settled from something like 75ftlbs! (And if they use a good 3/4" SnapOn they could probably break the bolt off -- even less good.)

[I give a procedure for using a 150ftlb torque wrench to reach 181ftlbs; better would be to have the correct wrench.]