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1G JNZ Gates timing kit

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Joelo

Probationary Member
9
5
Jun 19, 2020
Naperville, Illinois
I need to do a 120k on my 1g GSX. I've been doing a little research on this job and have heard a lot of back and forth about using OEM vs Gates for the various components. I found this kit on JNZ which is very cheap but wondering if there's a chance that some of these components (mainly the hydraulic tensioner) could be unreliable.

Does anyone have experience with this kit or the Gates hydraulic tensioner? I would really appreciate some feedback on this subject as this is the first time I'm doing a timing belt job on my car.

kit: https://jnztuning.com/product/economy-complete-timing-belt-kit-6-bolt-motor/
 
I appreciate both of your inputs, honestly any opinions and experiences are helpful. I'll do a little more research and if I'm still sketched out by the gates tensioner ill spring for the extremepsi kit. Thanks guys.
 
Thanks guys, yeah it seems the community loves that OEM tensioner. For anyone else looking, you can get the Gates water pump and timing component kit on amazon for $98 bucks together. And I see the OEM hydraulic tensioner (MD164533) on mitsubishiparts.com for $111. So if you want to throw together some stuff you can make your own kit for a little over $200. Or you can just buy from extremepsi like Dericsh pointed out. Probably worth it to spring for OEM for the peace of mind.
 
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I just did a timing belt job last week using all gates components and I had issues with something being larger, it required me to completely remove the auto tensioner to install the belt and then I had to pry the tensioner back on. I was skeptical but my tension seemed to be correct and I just went with it, car fired right up and has been driving every day since. I sourced my parts from rockauto as well, the price was the best.
 
I just did a timing belt job last week using all gates components and I had issues with something being larger, it required me to completely remove the auto tensioner to install the belt and then I had to pry the tensioner back on. I was skeptical but my tension seemed to be correct and I just went with it, car fired right up and has been driving every day since. I sourced my parts from rockauto as well, the price was the best.
What was larger?
 
What was larger?
I never bothered to investigate since I got it all installed and working just fine. Attached picture is with the tensioner pulley completely loose so it isn't applying any additional pressure, the auto tensioner also has the grenade pin still installed and this is how much I still needed to slip the belt on. I eventually worked more slack out of it and unbolted the auto tensioner completely just to slide the belt on then put one bolt back in and forced the other side up to get the second bolt back in the auto tensioner.

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Wish I would have seen this sooner.

We originally had the Gates kits up with the option for the OEM tensioner, However, the new catalog (which imported everything from the old) parses options down to a new part number for each option. We had something like 40 options for timing belt kits which just wasn't manageable. After losing money on kits, we had to take them down temporarily until we upload things in a different manner.

Change a pulley from the OEM kit to Gates--complete new part number. Change the belt to HKS/Greddy/Gates Kevlar/Evo 9 belt..etc....new part number to maintain. Anytime one vendor changed a price, it would be 10 part numbers that had to be updated.

We're still working on a manageable solution, but my opinion on your question:

I (personally) would only use a Gates kit on a car that I didn't highly care about. We have the option up there because more and more people have gone budget-based on these cars (although, it's starting to swing the other way again). 10 years ago, you'd be unlikely to find someone willing to use a Gates timing belt, much less the whole kit, but times have changed, and we all have budgets. The one thing that I *would* use out of the Gates kits is the idler pulley, as it's an NTK bearing unit the same as the Mitsu OEM and it rarely fails. We actually refused to carry Gates timing components (like most other budget brands for critical engine items), but the market has changed, and to survive in said market, we had to concede.

"Back in the day" (Yes..feeling my years typing this...), if you posted a question about using Gates timing components, you would have been made a pariah by other members on the board. That said, the failure rate was pretty low, but enough that it wasn't worth the risk. Mitsubishi's pricing has also increased on parts that they actually still make for these cars, sometimes doubling, tripling, or in some cases, much more. I remember *selling* 1G OEM water pumps for $76 back in the late 90's. Now dealer cost is over double that, and there's only *3* currently in Mitsubishi's U.S. Inventory (COVID Supply/Demand).

Same thing with 1G tensioners. They're expensive compared to Gates/Ebay/Etc., but I wouldn't use one on a personal car that I was keeping or abusing. You may find it on some dealer websites cheaper, but I can attest that they don't stock them and are relying on Mitsubishi to get them (as we do with some parts). Difference is--we and another business mentioned in this thread *stockpile* them, because we limit our business to these cars (and a few others), meaning, while we (JNZ) can get anything that Mitsubishi has, we have "put our eggs in the DSM Basket" and continue to do so. So, we have to keep them on the shelf when Mitsubishi runs out of them, as they did this summer for almost two months. They came in again for a while, but now have (Mitsubishi Corporate) a total of 12 more at this moment. We have a bunch on the shelf at this point to have something to sell the next time Mitsubishi runs out.

/rant

Too much to type out in one evening/post.
 
Pay the extra for the Mitsu auto tensioner or you will regret it down the line when your aftermarket auto tensioner won't keep tension and your TB slips teeth and crashes valves into the pistons. Just remember when putting the granade pin in to compress it VERY, VERY, VERY slowly in a vise - I mean 1/4 turn, wait 10 sec, 1/4 turn, wait 10, etc. If its internal seals leak out oil while compressing (because you went too fast), the auto tensioner is now junk and DON'T USE IT (it will not hold tension)!
 
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