My R33 Gtr Timing Belt Experience

[JD_R33]

Firstly, this isn't a step-by-step tutorial on changing your RB timing belt etc as it's already been covered here and elsewhere several times.

More a collection of little things I found out the hard way, that I don't recall reading anywhere before I started. Hopefully they will be useful for anyone else embarking on a similar project

Here's the list of parts I had accumulated over several months before finally getting around to actually doing the project:

• Timing Belt (Gates Racing) T1040R
  Belt Tensioner & Idler Pulley (Partech) PBT15 & PBT145
  Water pump (ACE)
  Thermostat (Tridon)
  Cooling Pro alloy radiator (JustJap)
  Radiator hoses (Gates)
  10 litres long life coolant
  Blue Max sillicone
  A/C belt 4PK915
  Alt belt 4PK875
  P/S belt 4PK970
  Adjustable cam gears (JJR)
  Clear timing cover (Bling!)
  Cam seals x 2
  Crank seal
  

The things that I wasn't prepared for:

1. You need a 30mm socket to undo the crank pulley bolt. The biggest I had in my set was 27mm, so off to Bunnings to get a sturdy little Sidchrome number.

2. There seemed to be lots of discussion about how to get the crank pulley bolt undone, cause the bastard is really, really tight - I found putting the car in 4th gear with the handbrake on and using a breaker bar with about 4 foot of water pipe slipped over it did it for me.

3. When I pulled off the fan I noticed the plastic had a series of cracks in it. Bugger. Off to Mr Nissan to order a new one - $257.91 + GST.

4. When I removed the allen bolts that hold on the upper timing belt cover several of the little steel/rubber packing washers fell to bits, so another call to Mr Nissan - $7.61 + GST each X 5.

5. Remembered reading somewhere that the clear timing cover needed the rubber gasket and brass spacers off the stock timing cover fitted, or the CAS would end up getting jammed. Tried pulling the rubber gasket off the stock timing cover - you guessed it - it fell to bits. Getting quite friendly with the bloke at the Nissan parts counter by now - $21.83+GST.

A few random observations & tips in no particular order:

• - I took my time doing it, basically disassembled everything one day, put it all back together the next. I find i'm much less likely to f*&k something up when not in a rush.
  - I bought a box of small ziplock bags from Woolies and used them and a permanent marker to put all the various bolts and things in as I went, made life much easier when it came time to put everything back together.
  - The CAS goes in a lot easier if you put a light smear of grease on the surface that slides into the timing belt cover, also on the rubber gasket.
  - The plastic fan shroud wouldn't quite sit in the bottom mounts with the new Cooling Pro radiator, was fouling on the bottom radiator hose. A bit of surgery with the Dremel soon fixed it.
  - The stock rubber hose from the radiator filler neck to the overflow tank was too big for the outlet pipe on the Cooling Pro radiator. Used a length of 6mm ID rubber vacuum hose from Supercheap, just needed to soften the end in some hot water to get it on the overflow tank inlet pipe.
  - The little plastic clips that hold the water temp sensor wiring connector to the fan shroud had broken, so drilled a small hole each side of the mounting point on the fan shroud and secured the connector block to it with a black cable tie.
  - The water pump came with a paper gasket, but the stock pump didn't have one when I removed it and there was no gasket shown in the R33 parts diagram, so I just used sillicone. Same for the thermostat housing.
  

Anyways, here's the end result.

Next DIY project - replacing the stock turbo's.