I hear that any shavings is a bad thing. So, how bad am I? Not looking forward to the job, so I want to be certain it needs to be done first. I thought the factory used yellow pencil, but I am at 153K, so a third belt may well be due. I tried finding reference pics but to no avail.
Thanks.

 

Anyone?

 

The belt looks pretty worn to me. You can see discoloration around the cog wheels from where the teeth touch the belt. The picture from the top looks like there are cracks all in the belt. Looks like its about time for a new one.

 

people drive aroudn wtih their timing belt looking like that.... if you find most any car your year model on the road, the owner will probably have a rougher looking timing belt than that and not even worry about it. if you want ot go thru the trouble, i'd say go ahead. the big thing to look for is the "teeth" in the belt... whatever you call them notches. if they look worn or are beginning to split, it's time to change that puppy. same with the serpentine.

 

Thanks for the reply.
The top of the belt looked more "glazed" than anything to me, I didn't see any cracks. However, I will trust the judgement of the more experienced, I have only done chains before. I was afraid this was going to be the verdict and wanted a second opinion before I took the plunge.Are there any belts to stay away from when buying new?
Dumb question, but I didn't see anything in the "repair manual" on checking timing on these cars- how can you tell if your timing is off? The last motor i got this involved with was my 79 Camaro, so it's a BIG difference.
Thanks for the help.

 

um... if your timing is off, you might do things like this, not including all symptoms

hit the gas and barelly any throttle response.
acting like its running out of gas when going up hills (kind of a shimying thing)
the shimying thing taking from red lights
the engine just flat out not running right

computerized engines as they wear down usually adjust the timing accordingly. but, inorder to reset your timing, you'll need a timing light (pick it up at your nearest auto parts store). you hook a wire to one of your spark plug wires and fire hte light on the crank shaft. the power from the spark plug wire powers the light... everytime it fires, you'll see your light hit the crankshaft. i'm not sure EXACTLY what you're looking out for... I only did this once and can't really remember too well. my dad did most of this stuff and he's asleep right now... lol

 

I'm looking for what the timing should be at, I'll look to see if there's a timing tab by the harmonic balancer. The electronics on the engine are the reason I ask the question. On my older cars I just had to adjust the distributor and it set the timing where I wanted it to be. If I find the timing is off with this engine, I'm a little lost. The info on the DOHC engine is not very consistent. I just read a 4 page DOHCarticle on angelfire to find it trashed on another site. It's a little frustrating to not have a solid base to gather knowledge from.

 

there really isn't a place where timing should be set at. some engines will do better timed up, some down. i watched this at a dyno shop as a saturday night short track car was being tuned. they kept playing with the timing. i talked to these guys about where they were setting it. the car would put as much as 12-15 more hp down depending on hwere the timing was. this engine in particular liked the timing set up a little bit. they told me that you can build 2 engines the same way and they will probably be a few hp difference. plus, in order to get maximum hp out of them, you'll probably put the timing in different places, if that makes sense to you. in all reality, you'll need to experiment i'd think. there should be a marking on the block or something that tells you where the timing "should" be. otherwise, find a member on here called Z34Phoenix... you've probably heard of him. send him a pm or an AIM and ask him what he thinks... he's our 3.4L DOHC expert.

 

Alright, cool. I know timing for performance is always a bit different, i had a timing advance kit on my Camaro... the timing also varied a bit through the RPM range. I was looking for a baseline for my PITA engine...lol. I'll just get my hands dirty and see what I can find on the block and pulley/balancer.
If I still cannot find it I'll PM Phoenix.
Thanks.

 

Just let your computer deal with the timing. As far as the belt goes, you could let it go, but if one of those teeth let go on the belt there goes your motor. I would change it.