hey everyone, i have a 97 z34, and i wanted to know if it was an interference motor becuase i need to get my timing belt changed. i know its a 600 + cost to begin with, but i know if i have an inter. motor and it breaks, im down 3000+ bucks then, so i want to get this info before it hits me. at the moment i dont have the money but i will soon and i need to make some long trips with the car and dont wanna be stuck somewhere.

thanks for the help.

 

A WHAT? Sorry, that's a new one for me.

 

i dont think its an interference motor, i'm not 100% sure on that, but i dont think it is

now $600 for a timing belt? how many hours is the job? the belt itself is only like 50$ cdn, so definetely cheaper in the states

 

everything i'm seeing is saying that its not an interference engine, i just googled it and everything i was getting was saying no its not

 

Oops, for a second I thought we were talking about the 3.8L V6 which is definitely not an interference motor.......

An interference motor is a motor where the pistons have cutouts on the top because the tolerances between the valve and piston are incredibly tight.
Both valves actually move down farther than the top of the piston, so the top of the piston will have a half-circle cut into it so the valve doesn't kiss the piston.
Diesel engines are usually set up like this. Japanese cars are too.

I doubt that the 3.4L DOHC is an interference motor, but I'm not positive.
Either way I'd get a second opinion if someone wanted $3k to change the timing chain.
$600 for the 3.8L V6 wouldn't be unreasonable as I think you have to either pull the engine out of the engine bay, or drop the subframe and access the front cover from the passenger side axle.
I don't imagine that the 3.4L DOHC is too much different.

-Riggs.