How to remove lower timing belt cover quickly and easily?

[Spoolin4Ever]

So we did the head on my motor (replaced a couple burnt valves, and new valve stem seals), one thing I noticed is that the lower timing belt cover can be a total PITA to get out and get back in. It's like there must be an easy, quick way, I'm just doing something wrong. I literally sat bent over the car 30 minutes trying to pull it out.

I had just bought a new cover last TB change (someone else did last one). By the time I got this one off, I had it all beat up, the black seal was coming out on the bottom because I cracked the cover on the bottom in a spot. I used some black RTV to get the rubber thingy back on down there to help keep stuff out of there.

I just want to know; what is the way to pull it out and put back on easy? If I remember correctly, I was about to give up, finally pulled it forward to front of car and up out and it came right out, making me feel like an idiot for having such a hard time. I still found it a PITA to put back in also.

At this rate it won't last long, though.

[Beemer92]

I'm not 100% sure on the 6 bolts, but on my 7 bolt I used a harmonic balancer/steering wheel puller from sears to pull it. I jacked up the car on the drivers side, pulled the wheel. Access should be staight forward. I used a breaker bar to undo the 4 outer bolts. I used a very strong airgun to undo the large center bolt. I have a Matco 1769a air gun, so I'd use something similar. The only problem I ran into was the harmonic didn't want to come off. I used a pry bar to remove it, and broke the lower cover into lots of tiny pieces. I'd try to leave the main center bolt halfway installed, then use the flat accessory on the puller set. I should work alot better than the way I did it. Whatever you do, DO NOT use a air gun on the puller kit no matter how tempting it is. You'll also probably need to pull some pulleys on the upper engine to remove the bolts for the lower and middle cover. Use your own judgement. Good Luck, Josh

[TheMadCheshire]

I'm going to assume you had the driver mount off and were properly supporting the engine? If you were supporting it correctly, I find that lifting the whole motor slightly higher than where it sits in the mount will allow some of the bigger pieces to be removed easier; such as the timing belt cover and the water pump.
Now it doesn't need to be raised way the heck up there, just an inch or two higher than it sits normally. Once the cover/pump/whatever is out, I lower the engine to roughly where it sits with the mount in place. I lower it to avoid putting undo stress on the other mounts still in the car.