Debating on digging into the timing belt.

[Erin]

1997 Acura CL with the 3.0
261,000 miles. No history on vehicle. Things look like they were maintained over the years as evidenced by things like good ball joints, tie rods, CV boots… basically stuff only a mechanic would think of.

So today I pulled the front camshaft cover off to inspect the belt as best I could. Rotated the engine a few times to get a view of other sections of the belt.
From what very little I could tell, it didn’t look horrible. It did have some very tiny cracks here and there that spanned maybe 1/8 inch. The few teeth I could see seemed OK.
When I get some time Monday, I may pull the main cover (after removing the PS pump)

I know the obvious answer is, “You don’t know the history, so replace it”.
One other detail – though the markings were too warn off to read anything, there was this sticker on the camshaft cover right above that warning sticker.
So at this point I am teetering on “is it safe to chance it for a while?” and “what if I replace it and something messes up, like the new water pump gives way?” and also “is it REALLY necessary?”

Inspection question – If I manage to get center cover off, is there a way to “measure” the stretch? What I mean is – for those familiar with the LQ1 (GM 3.4 DOHC) engine, you could slip a very small ruler under the tensioner and if it inserted beyond a point, the belt was too stretched. Anything like that on the J-series 3.0?

If replacing is the best route – what is that tool called that holds the crank pulley in place while you bust the main bolt loose?

Topic

[joe diffy]

crank pulley holding tool? i bought one off of ebay was about 20-30 bucks

and a crazy idea would be to google the vin #. reason being is that some times the carfax’s can be found for free online and you can see if the timing belt being changed had ever been recorded.

this is kind of why i don’t like hondas…THEY ARE ALL INTERFERENCE ENGINES.

toyota people have it good

if it were me i would definitely start studying up on how to do the belt…better safe then sorry. it’s possible you may not need to change it right now but eventually you will right?

[Lorrin Barth]

When replaced at the manufacturers recommended interval I’ve never seen a timing belt with cracks. Is it worth doing? That can only be answered by what the car is worth to you.

[none]

Any amount of cracking on a timing belt is your screaming hint to replace the belt. Even if the belt is still resilient enough to last a while, there’s no telling how much life the tensioner has left. I’ve seen a tensioner or two that were leaking out by 130K-ish miles. I’ve also seen a couple tensioners manage a quarter million before they gave out. Long story short, it’s your crap shoot. For what I’m reading, you just bought this car. You probably don’t want to say you just bought an engine any time soon.

[Author]

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