Hey guys, my best bud asks a lot of odd questions that I have a hard time explaining. I'm trying to break them down as simply as possible but this one, he asked me when I was pretty retired from the day. Honestly, I feel retarded after hearing some of his questions.

It would be the equivalent to working on a customers vehicle with them standing right there asking 20 questions. You know they aren't going to get what you're saying and their eyeballs would glaze over before their next breath. But hey, at least they're trying to learn, right?

He has a [stock] 97' Ford Escort with a timing belt, which he says hasn't been changed in a while. I got him to take that maintenance seriously when I explained what an interference engine meant since his apparently, is in that category. He's going to get it done sometime this coming week but during this period of time he's taking preventative measures to not strain the belt. And there's a giant uphill grade that stretches about one mile that he avoided (3 miles out the way) in fear of extra wear on the belt.

So that is his newest question. Could a heavy load on the engine, uphill climb, fully loaded car cause the belt to possibly snap.

I don't think so since our cars can encounter a lot of abuse such as launching at 5k+ and whatnot. Also, it's not like the transmission is ran off of a rubber belt, it's directly mated to the crank so the T belt is more of an accessory belt in that regard. I figure sustained high RPM's is the only thing I can think of to avoid. I don't know, and you guys can laugh, just enlighten me whilst doin' so

Any more insight to this, maybe an easier explanation?
I tried to make this entertaining, I hope it worked

Well the belt should be fine even going up a big hill. As long as the belt isn't about to break from damage or the fatigue of age and no oil on it that could cause it to jump time. It only has to turn the other pulleys and rotational mass at a constant rate to ensure proper time. The stress of the hill is isolated to the motors internals to the tires. The belt could be put under stress if a bearing goes bad and the belt has to overcome the extra frictional drag it creates.

How's the build by the way?

Haha, I got a chuckle out of this post. I'm no expert in motors, but I know the basics, and I've definitely been there with that glazed over look in the listener's eyes.
But lately, I've started to get really good at explaining how an engine works with a lot of hand motions. Explaining the costs if part x or y breaks really helps them understand

TSIturbo91 said:

Well the belt should be fine even going up a big hill. As long as the belt isn't about to break from damage or the fatigue of age and no oil on it that could cause it to jump time. It only has to turn the other pulleys and rotational mass at a constant rate to ensure proper time. The stress of the hill is isolated to the motors internals to the tires. The belt could be put under stress if a bearing goes bad and the belt has to overcome the extra frictional drag it creates.

How's the build by the way?

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That makes sense. Basically the timing belt is at a constant load, no matter the actual load on the engine. So heavier valve springs might have the same effect as bad bearing eh?

It's going good I think
I just got the exhaust / suspension / most the intake done and I'm just waiting on a little bit of money for the Aeromotive FPR. And that 's about it, just waiting on that .

I am nervous as hell about the first 30 minutes of start up though. I have to worry about setting spark timing, wideband readings, burning smell, look for leaks, no bad sounds, look at gagues, etc. man I'm not good at multitasking when I'm nervous about screwing something up in less than 5 minutes when it took 6 months to complete . I'll be using MotoMan method by the way

Kreez said:

Haha, I got a chuckle out of this post. I'm no expert in motors, but I know the basics, and I've definitely been there with that glazed over look in the listener's eyes.
But lately, I've started to get really good at explaining how an engine works with a lot of hand motions. Explaining the costs if part x or y breaks really helps them understand

Click to expand...

It's all good man thanks for reading, I like writing with humor If I wasn't such a boring dude, I would write blogs for peoples entertainment. Alas... I spend more time in the garage then my own house, and I can't write without outside inspiration -like being normal and hanging with friends more often

That's good. Getting real close to the first start is like being held at gun point while getting a hummer. Scary and exciting all at the same time, .

Also in regards to the timing belt. The only real stress to avoid would be rapid acceleration and revving the engine and such things. Regular driving should be fine. When the crank increases or decreases in RPM's the belt is put under greater stress then if it's at an idle.

Hope that helps explain things to your friend.

TSIturbo91 said:

That's good. Getting real close to the first start is like being held at gun point while getting a hummer. Scary and exciting all at the same time, .

Also in regards to the timing belt. The only real stress to avoid would be rapid acceleration and revving the engine and such things. Regular driving should be fine. When the crank increases or decreases in RPM's the belt is put under greater stress then if it's at an idle.

Hope that helps explain things to your friend.

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Thanks, I just spit coffee all over my keyboard, azzhole.

TSIAWDTalon said:

Thanks, I just spit coffee all over my keyboard, azzhole.

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And as I sat down at work with my coffee just checking in on my participated threads I got to this one and spit some o my coffee on my brand new iPhone. Call it even? Rofl