www.86garage.com

Sad day on sunday when i was driving my 86, dropped it in second, and my engine turned off...

I popped open the hood and thought it might be a snapped timing belt. So I opened the covers and i found this:


I was right...

Anyways, I was thinking about replacing it with either an HKS or a Tomei belt. Is it really worth it? Or should I just get a stock replacement?

id go with a TODA belt, those are so indestructible its not even funny

honestly i think you'd be ok with a OEM one can you remember the last time your old timing belt was changed? also you had got the motor from someone else so you never know lol eventually they get old from thousands and thousands of miles being put on them but an aftermarket belt wouldn't hurt either just my 2 cents

Sorry to hear that Thaison but fortunately the 4AG is a non-interferance engine so no bent valves concerns unlike Hondas.

Kevlar reinforced timing belts are over kill on stock motors. They're primarily intended to keep highly modified and high revving 4AGs (e.g. Formula Atlantic Engines) that have become interference motors from "slipping" even slightly out of time due to belt stretch especially at high RPMS and heat soak. Looks to me that the belt didn't have the proper tension on it because the tensioner wasn't torqued down properly and eventually lost all tension or improper tension applied period and the belt just stretched enough over time and slipped completely off...

OR

did it just snap Thaison?

I bought a HKS one and it has been through hell and back....

battery fell on it and rubbed and then a p/s hose got stuck in between it and the lower timing cover and now it's almost black but still going strong

noooo idea what happened. the belt has maybe 20k on it - i put a new belt on when i swapped the engine in. i'll prolly just get a stock replacement... and make sure i torque the tensioner down correctly.

sooooo so sooo glad we have non-interference motors!

there's a lot of oil around the belt and stuff... possibly why it went bad

Pictures?

Once you get it apart check the tensioner bolt. I had a bolt sheer off and cause the belt to slip off. I was able to extract the broken section and use a slightly longer/newer bolt. I didn't even have to change the belt or tensioner. The motor ended up lasting me another 6000 miles before the bad rings finally decided to stop sealing at all.

Yours may have just become loose. If that's the case, just clean the threads and make sure things are secured. Use some loc-tite if need be.