Timing Belt completed

[pbl]

Thank you to all the members on this incredible forum whom I would of never tried to tackle this job without all the information and knowledge available on this website. Especially to Larry Bastanza, Gary Kentosh, DanO plus many other experts on timing belt, water pump and valve adjustment articles.

I will say this took me over two weeks to complete as I did take my time (re-plated a lot of the 17 year old hardware) at the end and throughout I really enjoyed the challenge, NSX just runs amazing :smile:
One thing I learned doing this it was a lot easier to install the rear valve cover with the engine lowered as much as possible as I recall replacing the valve cover seals a few years back it was very difficult. Also tilting the engine up and down made access easier to do a lot of things.

Anybody in the Connecticut area that would like to borrow the crank pulley tools, valve adjustment tools and 5 mm pins (I cut in half two 5mm pins to make 4 which was just perfect in height) are welcome to use them.

Thanks again forum,
Peter

 

[Honda11]

Did you drop the engine to do this? Any suggestions, I will attempt this next spring after I get all the parts and tools.

 

[marko]

I have all my parts but it's kind of cold in the garage so I'm debating waiting. I did the tranny last spring and left the front mount on and tilted. Did you do the same to tilt the motor with a jack underneath?

 

[goldNSX]

Did you drop the engine to do this? Any suggestions, I will attempt this next spring after I get all the parts and tools.

There's no need to remove the engine for this job, it can be done with it in place.
Well, it's easier to work on a removed engine but it adds time and effort.
Wild guess: around 50% leave it in, the other half removes it, esp. professional workshops.

I have all my parts but it's kind of cold in the garage so I'm debating waiting. I did the tranny last spring and left the front mount on and tilted. Did you do the same to tilt the motor with a jack underneath?

Same here, several times delayed by cold winter.

For the tranny, you usually remove the rear and the left (driver side) engine mount but keep the right one and do some magic on the front one.
For the TB, you only remove the left and right engine mount while not touching the other two at all.

 

[marko]

What I meant to ask was if you dropped and raised the motor a bit by taking out the motor mount bolts and supporting to raise/lower with a jack underneath.

 

[goldNSX]

What I meant to ask was if you dropped and raised the motor a bit by taking out the motor mount bolts and supporting to raise/lower with a jack underneath.

Sorry, misunderstanding on my side.

Without both mounts (right and left) the heavier engine wins against the tranny. I don't recall if I supported (or slightly lifted) the engine while removing the left (tranny) mount. It doesn't hurt.
As soon as you remove the right mount the engine has to be supported safely for obvious reasons.
I'd start with the tranny side mount.

 

[MotorMouth93]

What I meant to ask was if you dropped and raised the motor a bit by taking out the motor mount bolts and supporting to raise/lower with a jack underneath.

During a timing belt service the engine needs to be supported from underneath (ideally not by the oil pan) and the right side/passenger side engine mount is removed while the left side/driver side bolt is loosened to allow the mount to rotate. This results in enough flexibility in the mounts to raise and lower the engine in the chassis by a few inches to gain clearance in otherwise difficult to reach places.

If you haven't seen it already, this PDF is very helpful when doing a timing belt: https://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/DIY/timing-belt.pdf