Why The Demise of Timing Belts?

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: cb_13
Love the timing belt set up on my 2.0 Zetec. $80 for timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and serpentine belt. $11 for an 18 pack of Natty light tall cans and 3 hours of my time every 100k miles ensures that my engine will outlast the body or transmission. Whichever goes first.


That is expense and labor I'll never have to do with my 2.0L duratec and it will still outlast the car.

 

[kschachn]

That's an S62? It shows its heritage with my M60.

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL

 

[sasha]

Yup.

[/quote]

BMW? If it is than much better. Clean ONE primary double roller chain. TWO secondary chains. Not that WV monster with two dozen chain guides and tensioners.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yup, that's the BMW S62.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Fabulously beautiful mechanical engineering.

But I'll take the new Vette motor any day. Long term ownership will tell the truth about the complexities of these DOHC engine designs...

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: sasha
Originally Posted By: DB_Cooper

I've heard that timing belt interval was 30,000 miles in Yugo. Not sure if true. Mine didn't last that long.





German engineering. Bleh

Pretty sure this kind of madness is fairly unique to Volkswagen/Audi.


Yup.

Jumper chains for the cams suck, this is how you properly run a T chain. BMW and Jag got half way their. Anything VW group is a nightmare.

 

[d00df00d]

Mercedes-Benz?

 

[hattaresguy]

All joking aside the best way to time an engine is with gears. Its also the most expensive and they are the hardest to keep quite. Belts are cheap, and light. Chains are somewhere in between.

This is where the Rolls Royce 6 3/4 V8 was a work of art and all Rolls Royce engines before that. They used gears and made them as quite as a belted Lexus V8. All it took was lots of time and $$$ to make them mesh very well.

But sadly people these days equate luxury with gadgets and not engineering quality and perfection. So you get massive LCD screens in the dash instead of all the engineering you don't see.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
But sadly people these days equate luxury with gadgets and not engineering quality and perfection. So you get massive LCD screens in the dash instead of all the engineering you don't see.

I agree mightily with everything before "instead of." Gadgets may have eclipsed behind-the-scenes engineering, but they haven't displaced it. Modern chassis and powertrain tech is really, really impressive...

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

timing belts went away with introduction of interference engines?

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
timing belts went away with introduction of interference engines?


There are plenty of interference engines floating around with timing belts.

 

[hattaresguy]

Lots of interference engines have belts, some cost as much as an Accord plus maybe a bit of a Civic to fix if you let the belt go snap!

 

[FL_Rob]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
timing belts went away with introduction of interference engines?


No..but they should've.

 

[LFN]

5K away from my second timing belt service with my 2006 KIA Spectra..$600 out the door every 60K, getting ready to hit 120,000. It's the mega service. All fluids changed, every filters, wipers, tire rotation and so on.

 

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Why belts or chains? Why not something that truly would never wear out like gears?

Ever been around a car with a gear drive for an in block cam? LOUD!

 

[babyivan]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
timing belts went away with introduction of interference engines?

Not if you owned anything Honda

 

[Falcon_LS]

I personally favor pushrod engines and their short timing chains in the back. I'm not a fan of timing belt jobs, although I have ample space to work with on the Mitsubishi and I generally like to replace it at the 100,000 km/62,000 mi mark - belt, crank/cam seals, tensioner and spring, coolant pump, crankshaft sprocket and flange, TTY bolt on the crankshaft pulley, etc. It's not that big of a job on the longitudinal 6G72 and it keeps me happy knowing I just replaced a whole bunch of stuff within a 4 hour time frame.

I'm not too sure of the timing chain on my Vortec 4200, although the geniuses at Ford decided it was a good idea to have nylon timing chain tensioners on the 4.6 between the years 2000-2003, and replacing those was more of a job than I bargained for on the Grand Marquis.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Originally Posted By: grampi
Why belts or chains? Why not something that truly would never wear out like gears?

Ever been around a car with a gear drive for an in block cam? LOUD!


Actually they do not have to be. Most of the gear drive mfgrs offer the 'noisy' or 'quiet' cut on the teeth which can easily be either way...

 

[cb_13]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: cb_13
Love the timing belt set up on my 2.0 Zetec. $80 for timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and serpentine belt. $11 for an 18 pack of Natty light tall cans and 3 hours of my time every 100k miles ensures that my engine will outlast the body or transmission. Whichever goes first.


That is expense and labor I'll never have to do with my 2.0L duratec and it will still outlast the car.

I can honestly say I have not seen a timing chain failure on the 2.0 Duratech. So it could very well last 350k+ miles. I just always think of all the Chevy Cavaliers I have seen meet there demise due to a timing chain failure and it makes me a little nervous.

 

[demarpaint]

I never liked the idea of a timing belt. I never owned a car with one, and will try my best not to. JMO