Editing Timing belt (section)

==RB20DET==

Ok so I finished doing my Timing Belt, idler/tensioner bearings and waterpump today, and I thought I'd record some of the things that I found out which will make life a lot easier for those wanting to do the same.

So here are my tips:

*'''Get an Air Compressor and Rattle Gun''' - This makes it really easy to remove your crank pulley bolt.  If you can't get access to one of these then I've heard you can use a breaker bar rested against the chassis while cranking the starter motor for a second, the only problem I can see with that is tightening it up again but I guess that could be done by putting the car in gear and tightening?  Rattle gun is the easy way.

*'''Breaker Bar''' - Always good, a breaker bar will help you loosen some of the tighter bolts as well as helps you crank the motor when needed.

*'''27mm Impact Socket''' - This is the size of the crank pulley bolt, get a socket to suit your rattle gun.

*'''Harmonic Balancer Puller and M6x50mm bolts and washers to suit''' - Self explanitory, makes pulling the harmonic balancer off a piece of cake.

*'''Gasket Maker''' - A tube of gasket maker stuff (blue tube, blue silicone kinda stuff) is required to make a gasket for your water pump.

*'''Water Pump''' - Use Genuine Nissan ONLY. I've heard nothing but bad things about non-genuine pumps, so dont skimp on this.

*'''Tensioner/Idler Bearings''' - While you are doing your timing belt, change the bearing cos they are very likely to be worn. Now, Nissan wants $105 for the tensioner and $315 for the idler  pain is pleasure yeah, i thought that was a bit expensive too... The solution is just to get 2 tensioners, which are the locking type and you can lock one up without using a spring which will act as an idler. I forgot the part number BUT when asking the parts interpreter ask for a Tensioner Bearing for an R32 with RB20DET. (The guy had to cross-reference old part numbers when i asked him for R31, but then later when giving me a demo of the software we found that the R32 listing had the Australian-Compatible part number)

*'''Timing Belt''' - I reccomend using the genuine nissan timing belt because it has markings for the cams/crank that match up - no dramas when it comes time to put the new belt on. Also remember that with everything off, even if something moves, each gear has a small dot on the face of one of the gear teeth which will line up with lines (in the case of the cams) and a little groove (in the case of the crank gear).

*'''White Out''' - I found it was helpful to mark all of the timing marks etc with white out to make them highly visible when i was putting the belt on.

*'''Other Tools''' - You'll need Sockets, Spanners in sizes 8,10,12,14,16,17 (off the top of my head) as well as a 5mm allen/hex key, pliers...

Many like to change the cam seals and crank seals while doing the belt, so keep that in mind if you have a few dollars spare - it will probably save you some future dramas

I hope that this guide takes some of the stress out of your timing belt change.

Regards,

Jacek