Engine : Timing Belt Crisis

Changing my Timing Belt on my 1997 Acura Integra GS-R was one of the longest jobs I have ever had to do. From start to finish changing my timing belt took 3 months. A special tool here, a seized bolt there, it was a nightmare trying to get all the people parts and tools together at the same time. It was almost not worth the effort, but then I just need to think of what would happen if I didn’t change it and it broke, now that would be a problem. To make a long story short if your timing belt was to break on your engine would pretty much be totaled. If you are thinking of doing this job for yourself let me warn you about some of the things you will need, and things that you will want.

Let us start with the things you will need. The Crankshaft pulley bolt on all Acura’s on screw on tighter than Hercules himself got get it on there. So you will need a 17mm impact socket, and if you are thinking of trying to get that bolt of with a impact gun don’t even bother, no impact gun could even put a dent in that bolt. The only way to break that bolt loose is to use a breaker bar with a nice long lead pipe on it for added leverage. Even with a 4 foot bar it still will take a lot of elbow grease.

This brings me to my second point believe me you will want a hoist for this job. Trying to do this on your back with your car slightly raised off the ground on jack stands makes this very hard job almost impossible. I could barely get my car high enough with my jack w/ a lot of extra blocks.

You have to love the engineers at Acura. They designed the Crankshaft so that you would need a special hexagonal tool to hold the pulley in place while you try to take the bolt off. It’s not an easy tool to find, and oddly enough I found one after I got the job done. So, as usually I was forced to improvise. Instead of using the specially designed tool to hold the pulley, I used a chain wrench. Improvising like this will pretty much always create a few scratches/dings on the threaded part of the pulley but that’s the cost of improvising. It won’t damage the pulley enough to cause any major damage. Although, you may need to smooth out a rough edge hear or there with a Dremel.

When tackling this job that pulley bolt is your biggest obstacle so once you have that down it clear sailing from there. Well, its time for me to go, if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them.


Note: Changing your timing belt is not one of those jobs you want to put off for too long!