Timing belt tension

[Edward Swearingen]

Well, I got my water pump and timing belt done. It’s all good, and all acura says on the timing belt is to use the tensioner to set it. I have seen reports of owners saying it’s not tight enough, so they push the tensioner a little before tightening it.

So what kind of tension should be on the belt of a double overhead cam?

Is there any general rule?

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Topic

[Caleb Stovall]

I have always let the tensioner set the tension with no problems.
The only times I’ve seen that what you describe was necessary, the person who had performed the timing belt maintenance didn’t know what he was doing and stretched the spring causing it to not pull enough.

[zero]

If it’s any sort of automatic tensioning device, it should apply the correct pressure. It’s also fairly common practice to replace them with the belt service.

[Edward Swearingen]

I used the older spring that was there. It was a double spring, one inside the other. Probably OEM. The new spring was a single, came with the gates tensioner.

In many of the Acura/Honda forums, people say the spring isn’t tight enough. They give it just a little more. They run high rpms. That’s a Honda, below 4k, there’s no torque. Above 5k they scream. I’m not saying tightening it is right, that’s why I’m getting more input. These Honda tuner guys live with their cars. Some know a lot, some don’t. I barely pushed a little tighter, not much. It jumped a tooth while during the initial installation, as I was trying to get it adjusted. They call it an interference Engine. One tooth off and the valves hit the pistons.

[Edward Swearingen]

To tension the belt correctly:

This is what I missed. I did it at TDC.

-Turn the engine over counterclockwise so 3 teeth come up on the intake cam pulley

Then tighten the tensioner.

[Author]

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