• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Risks to leaving timing belt uncovered?

drj434343

drj434343

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2010
Location
Portland, OR
I see it all the time here, and am trying to decide whether to reattach the stock timing belt cover on my B21F or leave it uncovered.

The risk I see is some foreign object, or snapped accessory belt getting under the belt and derailing it or making it jump a few teeth.

Are there other risks I'm not thinking of here? It seems pretty minimal. Any horror stories?
 
Foreign object. Knock on wood, never had any issue with the cover off, but I have had one snap with the cover on, because the cover was holding in all the oil and road grime and I wasn't looking at the belt all the time.
 
You won't want to get too frisky in the dirt...
I do know a guy who sucked up a plastic bag on the freeway and derailed his belt.
Not the end of the world, but sure sucks while you are there on the side of the road chatting it up with Officer Friendly.
 
745 TurboGreasel said:
You won't want to get too frisky in the dirt...
I do know a guy who sucked up a plastic bag on the freeway and derailed his belt.
Not the end of the world, but sure sucks while you are there on the side of the road chatting it up with Officer Friendly.
Click to expand...

Ohhh. Yeah, might want to do the e fan conversion at the same time.
 
Start a new fad and leave the valve cover off too while you're at it.

Be an engine, not a caboose.
 
I have a belly pan and run without covers on my 16v. Since there is no real cover that works, I actually cut and fit the lower one, while assebly the first time I put it together, I accidetly dropped a socket down in the open cover....tore it back apart and left it off since. 5k miles with no issues.
 
16V here, like Nathan said unless I got creative with plastic welding, there's nothing that fits on there.

But even with the 8V head, I never ran a cover. Just keep a belly pan on it, keep an eye on the belt, I really don't think it gets any dirtier without a cover than with. Possibly it stays a little cleaner.
 
I will be running a belly pan and am contemplating leaving the cover off, only because the black plastic looks out of place to me. If I can find one of the earlier aluminum ones, I may stick that on instead.
 
just drill a hole about the same size as the cam gear in the front, keeps the belt clean and free from the outside world, and you get to see your coolz IPD/RSI cam gearz doood.
 
And it looks bitchin':
IMG_9359.jpg
 
i have run b230 without any cover for years. even pretty heavy and fast off road. no damage or tooth jump. a cover to seal from foreign debris is a contingency from the factory designers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top