baja'n in weeds taller than the car, mud and grass and sticks and gravel. broke both belts at the same time because of a LOOSE RAG UNDER THE HOOD. fixed it off the side of the road in 20 minutes with used belts, a flashlight, 3/8" ratchet and a 12mm socket. and a 7/8 socket. drove home 40 miles. went baja'n the next day

fox you are a savage.

 

thats why I run belt covers.

 

more power to ya.

, seriously I did

 

sometimes I wonder, if I didn't have covers, would I still be going?

ya but if you notice the belt failure came from a rag that was under the hood and not the weeds,mud, and whatever else he was going thru.

I got 20,000 miles on my open belts. never had a problem with anything. I like it way better then havin the covers. Miles is my hero for ideas

I've run without timing belt covers since about 2002, and I've been through all kinds of stuff year-round. I had one belt fail, but that belt was already a used one that I was too broke to change out when I took the covers off. It took me about 1 hour to change both belts and belt tensioners.

 

The thing I really like is that I can inspect my timing belts every time I check the oil on my car. I can check the tension, and look for unusual wear.

i should pull up the pic of morganms rig burried well past the front bumper, with the timnig belts sittinin rocky mud =]

i have seen a rag stick on a manifold and catch fire under a buddies hood, so at least the worst didnt happen.

 

i run open belt on my toyota offroader too, with out problems.

I have open belts in the turbo XT too.. inspection and service is quick and easy!

 

and the lovely home made skid plate (covers the whole underside of engine bay) protects the belts from items traveling upward!

 

woohoo for open belts!

thats what I'm talking about. do you have any pics?

I second the "woohoo" and request for pics that would be awesome!!!

Miles, I can always live the the "wild life" vicariously through your threads.....................

You always get the job done with just a handful of tools.....................

I can't do anything without my roll-away AND my JY toolbox.

 

 

SO, I have my engine out and heads off now. You think I should say to heck with the covers and just leave them off when I reassemble??

 

TIA, I just love these old threads!

Just out of curiosity, are you guys with no covers running without the rear plastic as well?

 

If so, whats the procedure for lining up the belts without the marks?

Just out of curiosity, are you guys with no covers running without the rear plastic as well?

 

If so, whats the procedure for lining up the belts without the marks?

for those of you who are doing timing belts and dont mind working on your own car DITCH THE COVERS!

 

caleb, i run only but one piece of plastic if i have it, its the part behind the idler pulley on the driver side. i keep it there because its the only part of the belt system that has no motor behind it. the that overlaps the oil pump i cut off so i can remove the pump if i had to. be sure that if you take the idler pulley off(to put the plastic on! ) torque it good or it will walk oout and break

 

to align the dots on the cm pulleys ythe seam for the cam cover is where the dots will line.

 

you can also tell odegbtdc by aligning the passenger side dot to the top rib on the flat part of the cam cover

Makes sense to me...........................My covers are all cracked anyway and over half of the bolts "spun" in the cover, making it a real pain to pull.

here is a picture of how the belt setup would look. this motor is just like how it would go into the car. notice the plastic behind the idler pulley

 

Going off the pic, I just trim away all the plastic to the left of the idler.

I see no "bottom" to it either?

Input from those running open timing belts pls !_!

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27627

 

thx

i run no timing covers without problems but the cam sprockets and idler pulley's definetly get rust on them. i drive 30,000 miles a year at least so sitting idle does not contribute to the rust. it gets plenty of use and temps to rid itself of water, but the faces of the pulleys, the cam sprockets and even the pulley surfaces a little bit get rust on them. i don't like it but i hate having all the plastic in the way even more. like miles said i can easily do my timing belts in like 30 minutes (the XT6 is harder than the 4 cylinders). when i tear the engine down i hope to paint or coat them with something to prevent the rust. doesn't really hurt anything but would be nice to keep it clean. anyone know if paint or some kind of powder coat would work on cam sprockets or the pulley faces? by pulley faces i mean the front, where the bolt slides through.

I run no covers at all, front or rear.

 

I religiously take off all the covers on everything I get thats got a Tbelt.

 

Ive been thru almost everything and never had an issue!

I got my RX inspected today, and was berated because I didn't have my covers on.

 

I would have said something, but since they passed the car with no muffler and three bald tires, I held my tongue.