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Timing belt teeth ripped off at Crank

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XiKeiyaZI

15+ Year Contributor
6,967
55
Dec 28, 2008
Goldsboro, North_Carolina
So... Ironically I was talking about changing my T-Belt (It was the stock T-Belt from '92) whenever this happened.

I was driving down the road talking to my friend that I needed to do a few more things to my car before I was happy with it and felt safe. When i said " Change my Timing Belt" I took off from a stoplight at about average speed, the car sputtered once, and died. I had enough speed built up to roll into a lot.

I jumped out, IMMEDIATELY ripped the timing belt cover off, had him bump the ignition, and bam.. no turn in the cams.

We towed my baby home. I took the pully's, cover, belts, and everything off to find...

1: My timing belt teeth had been chewed off at the base of the crank, so all the crank was doing was spinning in place.

2 : The smaller timing belt had been ripped in half.

Fearing the worst, I rotated the crank so as the pistons weren't (I assume) near the valves.Removing the valve cover, i checked the lobes on the Valves and didn't see any pressing directly on the valves. I turned the CAM gears to check them (dowels up) and never heard anything. They turned over smooth. I rotated the crank a few times.. not a single tick.

BIG EXHALE. The CAM dowels were down, so I assume that the valves were closed just enough to be same from high impact on the Pistons. Thank God.

After a few drooling hours of experiencing my first T-Belt change... I put everything together, making sure all of the marks and arrows and lines were correct per my manual, and cranked it. Didn't hear a SINGLE TICK. But it didn't start.....

Turns out I had unplugged my CAS. :ohdamn: Well I plugged it up... cranked it.. started PERFECT. Not a SINGLE tick, idled smooth, sounded good... but different.

Now I feel like.. the car is a bit different....it still runs great... pulls hard (I've babied it over the past few days) and everything...but at high RPM (4k+) I can feel a vibration... The car SOUNDS like it's lacking power, but it doesn't FEEL like it.

So my question is... what'd I miss? Is it just running like it should or did I "F" something up? I was wondering if my CAS had to be adjusted... I took a look at it and you can visibly see where it has been moved before (Not by me, I don't normaly adjust something unless I absolutely have a need to.)

What do I do? @_@ I've drivin' her almost 100 Miles since the change... I just want to be sure she'll be reliable.
 
Did you double check, triple check, and quadruple check just to make sure that you weren't off by a tooth on any of the gears.
 
Dude... I checked like 100 times. Even took the valve cover off (to better help the alignment with the head) couldn't find a straight edge.. so I marked the notches on the back of the cam gears with a steak knife, a nail file, ... and yes.. I've fixed 4389402314 things with this damned steak knife..

So yeah.. I made my friend go with me after a ton of insecurity, that we need to remove the timing belt and check the CAM gears for alignment. The first time we were off a tooth. The next 6 times, we were dead on.

Here are the tools that I did my engine swap with.. AFTER the engine was set in.

Stanley tool set
$15 Torque wrench (was calibrated... VERY damned acurate.)
Cheap Breakover bar
A contraption to use my very small drive 10MM socket as I lost my 1/4' socket
A pair of spring loaded pliers we call the "Big F***' Its" for when you're irritated and just go (F*** it!)
2 Scissor jacks and a floor jack
2 Belts (Like... pants belts) to raise and drop the transmission 3 times (Down to pulling and putting back up in under 2 hours now! )
A couple beers
A lot of ### jokes
A ton of luck.

But I do take my time with what I have. =/ I'm just not sure about this one. I've drivin' the car about 100 miles and nothing is obviously wrong.. it's just a gut feeling... ya' know?
 
if your car is all stock. mitsubishi recommends setting your timing to 5 degrees BTDC. at least that is the base timing i have learned and have always used myself. use a timing light to adjust the CAS. dont guess on the CAS because if you advance or retard to much you will cause your engine to run to lean or to rich causing major damage to internals.
 
if your car is all stock. mitsubishi recommends setting your timing to 5 degrees BTDC. at least that is the base timing i have learned and have always used myself. use a timing light to adjust the CAS. dont guess on the CAS because if you advance or retard to much you will cause your engine to run to lean or to rich causing major damage to internals.

Appreciated. I'll get that done today. It seems to be running fine, but I'll make sure to get this taken care of.

Thanks!
 
Don't know about the N/T but I know that on my car when my head seized (long story), and my crank was doing the exact same thing yours was, when I ripped the engine apart, I had marks on at least one of my pistons from the valves hitting. I really hope that your engine is ok though. I don't know how different the N/T is. I would assume that if it is still the same, then you may have a bent valve if only slightly.
 
you said when you looked at the damage the "small timing belt was broken" you must mean the balance shaft belt. If when you replaced it, you didnt have the balance shaft that runs off the oil pump timed right, you will have a vibration like you said. I have both of my balance shafts totally removed, and it vibrates over 4k but it wont hurt anything.
 
Oh! Yeah. that's what it seems to be doing.

The balance shaft, which gear is that? -Goes to look up pictures-


Edit : I did have a small issue with the timing belt installation. The RIGHT sprocket that sits to the right of the crankshaft that the timing belt itself wrapps around before it goes to the crank pully.

(When looking through the wheel well, it's the far right pully with the obvious arrow that points to the timing mark)

Every time I put the belt on, I'd have to guess the movement of it as when the belt teeth fell into place, they were out of line with the crank. I made sure the crank timing was perfect, but being honest, I believe that the right pully may be off just a tad bit.

Would that be causing the vibration? Will it damage the engine any?
 
if the balance shaft is off a little it will cause vibration (there are actually two), thats what they are there for is to mask the vibration of the engine with spinning counter balanced shafts. It will not hurt anything in the engine if they arent timed correctly. You will simply have a small vibration.
 
Kay... cause that rear one was a B**** to get right. I may be a tooth off. =/
 
you might want to do a compression or leak down test and see were u are at!It is possible that you tweaked a valve a bit! They don't always bend all to hell, some times i cant even tell before i get them on my valve facer! I know u didn't want to hear that sorry!
 
you might want to do a compression or leak down test and see were u are at!It is possible that you tweaked a valve a bit! They don't always bend all to hell, some times i cant even tell before i get them on my valve facer! I know u didn't want to hear that sorry!

Ah, it's cool. I did a compression test, and noticed a slight drop in compression, about 7-10 PSI in cylinder 1... but performance didn't seem to be bothered. Plus, it's had low oil pressure on idle for some time, so it could just be the rings on that piston.

Either way, I no longer own the car. I ended up selling it yesterday. ;P I'm now the proud owner of a 1G TSI AWD, and a 1G GSX... I'll be driving the GSX and the TSI will be for parts/the engine will be dedicated to building up.
 
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