Lose your timing belt, lose your engine

LOL! I would guess...264?

There were some Volvos that had PRESSBOARD timing gears! I spent an afternoon with a friend who got sick of replacing them and replaced it with a steel gear.

145. The odometer must have been about 260K at the time. I asked at the dealer if a steel gear was available, and he said he had one. He had sold it several times but it always came back because it was so noisy. Makes sense, I guess, and after thinking about it I figured the car wasn't likely to outlast the composite replacement gear.

Mike

Yeah, it did sound horrible, but we never had to rip the front of the car off again!

It can happen but not very often...

JT

Not so (noisy).

Only noise is from the solid lifters, another way to go if you hate shortlived comfort.

JT

Studebaker used a fiber (phonolic) cam gear and steel crank gear. Failure is almost unheard of at least before 300K. High performance engines were equipped with an aluminum cam gear.

Volvo was not the most dependable foreign car made. I can tell some horror stories...

JT

I had an 1800ES. Except for trying to KILL me, it was an OK car, but monthly maintenance required.

He dumped that car and bought an Isuzu mini SUV. Some guys never learn.

| Many Japanese products use timing belts with non-free running | (interference) engines. When, not if, the belt skips or breaks, your | engine and $8,000 is gone.

Honda engines

LOL! How do you say "Blown head gasket" in Japanese?

It's either Isuzu or Supra, I can't remember now...

Yup. Supra MKIII turbos. Mine was one of many with blown head gaskets. Pity, such a beautiful car.

CD

Supra, I can't remember now...

such a beautiful car.

Was your Supra stock? Ever overheat or leak coolant? I'm just curious because I have been following the issue (own a Supra) for a long time.

Thanks Dan

When I bought mine, I had all the records from the previous owner (but not from the original owner). I know the last owner spent $1100 on cooling system components. I wonder if that included a HG. I'll have to see if I can find it.

I ran it one year just fine, and then last year it started overheating. Thanks to Ray O and Danny G I discovered the fan clutch had bitten the big one. A new clutch and no overheating problems!

The only problem is, I went aftermarket. When the fan comes on it does so with a vengance, and the car sounds like a B-17 taking off! (If you've ever heard one, that is!)

Supra, I can't remember now...

such a beautiful car.

Classic symptoms of a blown head gasket:

Car overheats and the overflow tanks boils over. You stop the car and let it cool down. Surprisingly, it cools down rather quickly. You fill the radiator and overflow with coolant and drive off. The car is fine for some time, like a week or so before it does it again.

I kept that going for a year, then one day the car was totally sick. No power, exhaust was pure smoke. I knew the the head gasket just blew a whole chunk by then and coolant was going directly into the combustion chamber.

Had the gasket replaced and car was good after that.

CD

Uh, oh..

Well, that didn't happen...it took quite a while!

Nah, not in my case.

Mine was a fan clutch that wasn't working right. After I replaced it, everthing was fine.

But, one time the overflow bottle was boiling...

Or at least had steam bubbling up in it.

Yeah, after you replaced the fan and you still had bubbles in the overflow tank, yours was on the way out. Keep in mind that it varies driving style. For my style, let's just say that I would stop the car at night and pop the hood to see the turbo glowing bright orange . . . . . . .and it was definitely NOT from any neon lights:)

CD

No, after I replaced the fan clutch the overheating and the bubbling stopped. And, I don't have the Turbo, so I ain't overheating much (pavement included...I have the Sport Roof model...4400 LBS, automatic and NO TURBO!!!)

Oh, yeah...Codifus made me remember something. When I bought my Supra, it had...a BROKEN TIMING BELT!!!! But since I knew this was a Non-Interference engine, $100 and a new timing belt later it was up and running just fine again.

so there.