timing belt changed..little off ok?

[avenged yoda]

ok so i changed my timing belt and water pump and all that jazz. did it with a friend and saved a sh!t ton. my question is if its off just a hair or half tooth even would this make a difference? my friend tried to tell me that it would work itself out but i do not know for sure after much research. it started and ran but and seemed ok i guess im not sure. i didnt run it long because the radiator wasnt hooked back up yet so yea. i dont want to get it back together and it not be ok. help please. thanks.

 

[01thunder]

ok so i changed my timing belt and water pump and all that jazz. did it with a friend and saved a sh!t ton. my question is if its off just a hair or half tooth even would this make a difference? my friend tried to tell me that it would work itself out but i do not know for sure after much research. it started and ran but and seemed ok i guess im not sure. i didnt run it long because the radiator wasnt hooked back up yet so yea. i dont want to get it back together and it not be ok. help please. thanks.

it's got to be right.

 

[xcmtb83]

Half a tooth?...OK, regardless of the meaning of half a tooth yes it needs to be dead on for the engine to run properly. I know for a fact the 3.4 will start and idle fine even if the belt is off by one tooth but once it is put under any sort of a load it starts to ping. Being offset the opposite direction as mine was may yield different results.

 

[BTO]

Agreed. If it's not timed exactly correct then you can expect bad performance and crap fuel economy.

 

[JamesDean91]

I drove with my timing jumped 2 teeth on the passenger cam for 9 months didn't notice a thing other then bad gas milage haha

I found out when putting timing belts on the 4 rigs I've done the timing on setting the cam gears to tdc and the crankshaft jumped 1 tooth back that when you rotate until the cam gears are aligned again the timing marks all align up correctly due to the slack in the belt being taken away.

If that didn't make since I can try and explain a little better in the morning.

 

[19963.4lsr5]

Its a bugger getting the belt tight on the crank pulley. It always wants to be one belt rib loose. It took me half a hour of fiddling with it. Ended up using a stubby screwdriver and walked the slack around the pulley.

 

[TheDurk]

Well, there is no such thing as half a tooth. It is either on-timing or off by one tooth. You need to figure out which as one tooth makes a difference.