Is it just me, or is my timing belt about to slip off?

[BartusCompater]

She's been running absolutely horribly lately, especially when cold (it takes a lot of throttle to get it start up and stay running, but once up to temp, runs mostly fine), and with finals over I've finally got time to delve in and poke around. I've never done anything with the timing belt, and I found this:



And the inside of the shroud was lined with all of this fuzzy stuff, clumped together by oil:



Wondering what everyone's thoughts are. Does this timing belt look like it's about to slip off, or is that normal? The car has so many things that need addressing right now and I don't see how this would affect performance (until it comes off, obviously), but I thought I'd ask.

[dmwhiteoak]

It looks to me that about half of your belt is gone. My belt covers all of my pulleys. Is the belt rubbing somewhere? I would put a new belt on the top of my to do list if I were you.

[Fi8spider]

Not good and lucky that you've picked this up before she goes.
Which area of the cam cover did you get that fur out of? For mine a belt change, tensioner bearing and front engine oil seals at a minimum, ASAP.
There are 1 inch wide timing belts available which would cover more of the pulley.

Regarding your poor start up and performance I would suggest pulling the spark plugs out and having a look at what they are saying.

[RRoller123]

If the spacer at the bottom attachment point for the timing belt cover is missing, when you tighten it down it can hit the belt. It would be a good idea to check this carefully. On my 80, it is the mounting point just under the alternator, driver's side. The spacer was missing on mine when I purchased the car.

[BartusCompater]

I got the fuzz out from inside of the passenger's side of the cover. But it seems to be lining the whole inside of the cover. As far as the oil seal and the bearing, are these tough fixes after doing the necessary steps for replacing the timing belt? I'm just not sure what to expect since I'm having a hard time finding those procedures in my shop manual. (Are these the correct seals? http://www.international-auto.com/index ... sid=860310)

Here are my plugs. The most noticeably worn looking of these (2nd from the left) is plug 3. The others I mixed up. Plug 3 certainly had a lot of buildup on it, though I scraped some of it off out of curiosity.

[BartusCompater]

It appears that Fi8's hunch about the tensioner bearing was correct, as was Roller's hunch about the missing spacer, which the bottom mount did not have (only a lockwasher).

[BartusCompater]

Huh.

[joelbert2k]

Just a hunch here, but I'd say you've lost your marbles.

[BartusCompater]

Ahaha, sure have.

My question now is this: What's the best way to loosen my camshaft and aux shaft pulley nuts without the timing belt? I want to get in there to replace the seals. The timing belt was so loose though that when trying to crack open the nut on the camshaft pulley it would just turn underneath the belt (independent of the crank and the other camshaft) even though I was holding the crank with a chain wrench (didn't make a good sound either).

Would an impact wrench be the right place to go here, or would that be a no-no? Sort of stumped as to what to do unless I put the new timing belt on and then take it off again, which my shop manual says would mean having to get another new one.

[RRoller123]

You can use the chain wrench on the cam gears, just wrap some rubber around them to protect them, something like an old inner tube works quite well.

[BartusCompater]

Ah, that's good advice! Thanks.

[131]

The old timing belt on the gear, held with vicegrips works fine for me.

[RRoller123]

That's a really good solution.

[BartusCompater]

I had a friend suggest that I apply something called permatex to the outside of the new seals when installing them on the front of the engine? Anyone have any experience with this? Is that a good suggestion?

[131]

I've been using permatex for engine builds for 30+ years. It can be messy and a pain to use, so some people don't like it. There are better modern equivalents available, but I've always had a bottle in the shed.