E-30 timing belt equivalence?

[dnguyen1963]

Hi guys,
Since the TB broke on my E-30, I decided to replace the TB on my Toyota Camry. What a shock! The Camry has over 90K and the belt looks almost new. My E30 belt looks paper thin. Has any of you looked for a better and higher quality belt from other car maker that would fit in the M20 engine? Just curious. It is no wonder that the recommended changing interval is only 20k.

[e30davie]

Since when is the recommended interval 20k? isnt it 60,000miles which is 96,000km. 100,000km is very typical for timing belt interval for 80s/90s cars.

Dunno what you are getting at, i took mine off the other month after 5yrs and 40,000km and it looked "almost new" as well. and the replacement one (dayco i think) wasn't exactly flimsy.

[digger]

You cant really make the belt any bigger or it wont fit correctly and its probably not really the issue. The blue gates racing one uses better materials but service life is not stated to be any different. if you have a belt fail before the service 60k interval which is not that short then the owner usually messed up something.

The design of the belt which wraps 180 one way then 90 degrees back on itself means there is a lot of flexure so not the most optimal out there but not that much different to others

[nando]

20,000 *nautical* miles? where the heck did you get 20k from?

M20 timing belts only break for one of two reasons: neglect or ignorance.

[ForcedFirebird]

As long as you change them every four-ish years, the stock belt is more than adequate - irregardless of miles. The rubber dries out, and the cogs fall off, the belts don't really "snap" often.

Had a customer in several years ago at work who "only had" 10k miles on his belt, but it was about 8yr old. I suggested he change it immediately and I got that "but it runs fine". A month later, got a call and sure enough, the car came in on a rollback with a broken belt. That was ~1.5 decades ago, the owner is dropping his car off for another timing belt service, it's been four years since we did the last one....he didn't like having to replace the head all those years ago when 885's were $150 on the forums, never mind today's prices.

[82eye]

As long as you change them every four-ish years, the stock belt is more than adequate - irregardless of miles. The rubber dries out, and the cogs fall off, the belts don't really "snap" often.

Had a customer in several years ago at work who "only had" 10k miles on his belt, but it was about 8yr old. I suggested he change it immediately and I got that "but it runs fine". A month later, got a call and sure enough, the car came in on a rollback with a broken belt. That was ~1.5 decades ago, the owner is dropping his car off for another timing belt service, it's been four years since we did the last one....he didn't like having to replace the head all those years ago when 885's were $150 on the forums, never mind today's prices.

this

i'll be running gates. change them the same as a conti etc.

[dnguyen1963]

Oh shit, sorry...it was meant to be typed 50k, not 20k.

[lukeADE335i]

They aren’t as unreliable as people make out. Dad messed up a few years ago and changed the belt on his e30, only to swap engines and he forgot to change the belt on the ’new’ motor because he thought he’d done it. About 5 years later he inspected the timing belt while doing a service and it looked terrible! He realised his mistake and we looked back through the records for that engine - the belt in the car was 13 years old and had done around 130k miles. He was lucky it hadn’t broken, but if you stick with quality parts they can easily last the recommended service intervals.

[ForcedFirebird]

They aren’t as unreliable as people make out. Dad messed up a few years ago and changed the belt on his e30, only to swap engines and he forgot to change the belt on the ’new’ motor because he thought he’d done it. About 5 years later he inspected the timing belt while doing a service and it looked terrible! He realised his mistake and we looked back through the records for that engine - the belt in the car was 13 years old and had done around 130k miles. He was lucky it hadn’t broken, but if you stick with quality parts they can easily last the recommended service intervals.

I bought the 86 eta in 2006, and I only had a record of the belt being changed in 1990. I got the car with 72k actual miles, but the belt was still 16yr old. Belt was very brittle, wouldn't have lasted much longer. Wouldn't suggest trying it, I've seen them go at ~5yr, and I've seen them go at 20yr. Not worth the gamble with 885 head prices these days. In 2007, we could just go to the you-pull, and there would be dozens of m20 cars scattered about.

[varg]

M20 timing belts only break for one of two reasons: neglect or ignorance.

I dunno, QC on the tensioners, like many other parts, has been pretty awful lately. Mine started whining and shifted the belt such that it rubbed on the housing and left a bunch of dust behind, it shaved maybe an 1/8" off of the edge of the belt. Not too long ago saw one where the shaft was dangerously close to coming out of the bracket entirely. Either one of those could cause the belt to break if not just come off with very little warning if not for sheer luck. These weren't cheapo tensioners either, the swaged construction is just suboptimal, they should be welded.

[digger]

I dunno, QC on the tensioners, like many other parts, has been pretty awful lately. Mine started whining and shifted the belt such that it rubbed on the housing and left a bunch of dust behind, it shaved maybe an 1/8" off of the edge of the belt. Not too long ago saw one where the shaft was dangerously close to coming out of the bracket entirely. Either one of those could cause the belt to break if not just come off with very little warning if not for sheer luck. These weren't cheapo tensioners either, the swaged construction is just suboptimal, they should be welded.

Generally I’d put neglect and ignorance into choosing a poor quality tensioner but if the good ones do fail prematurely it’s hard to justify being that harsh . What brand was it? I’ve only used dealer ones and INA

im surprised someone has not come up with a nice strong billet one that you can remove and replace just the bearings.

[varg]

Continental. Like I said, not cheapos. This isn't anything new, the auto parts aftermarket has been on a steady decline for years, even good brands. You have to have noticed it by now. On the second part, someone has: ppf. They have a lot of cool stuff and nobody seems to know about them. Strange, that.

[digger]

Continental. Like I said, not cheapos. This isn't anything new, the auto parts aftermarket has been on a steady decline for years, even good brands. You have to have noticed it by now. On the second part, someone has: ppf. They have a lot of cool stuff and nobody seems to know about them. Strange, that.

actually I've seen that before, it must have been in my subconscious

[lukeADE335i]

That billet tensioner looks excellent. With a gates racing belt you'd be pretty set.

[ForcedFirebird]

I had two failures one year due to the tensioner rivet coming out. Both Continental brand, awareness was raised and haven't had another. That was back about 2016 iirc.