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Timing belt 3.3 V6

359K views 299 replies 108 participants last post by  jj_frontier 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well today i figured it was time to do my timing belt. its lasted me 135k hard miles, and yes that is 30k overdue. so its time to do something for my truck. Brand new water pump, timing belt, tensioner, and thermostat from Nissan.


start by removing the breather tube that goes from bank 1/2 to the intake. remove the fan and loosen nuts that hold on the fan clutch to the pulley while the belt is still on. remove brackets that hold the radiator in then pull off all 3 belts. Set the crank pulley to the TDC marking and pull off using a puller. the pulley is very easily damaged so be careful. you can see the puller in the bottom of the pic




remove the 3 12mm bolts from the thermostat housing. pull the old thermostat out and scrape off all of the old RTV. mine was not bad but this is the best time to do it.


Remove the 2 timing belt covers and keep the bolts in a clockwise order, some are different lengths and it is easier to keep track this way. make sure the marks on the cams are facing upwards like in the pics, if not you will have to rotate the crank 360* to get the cams to turn 180*(i got lucky and they were at the right position). loosen the tensioner bolt then pull off the belt. remove the spring off the old tensioner or install new one onto the new tensioner.


Now, remove water pump. Again, keep bolts in a clockwise manner to help with the order. scrape off all of the remaining gasket on the block(it is a pain!!!). having a whiz wheel helps a lot on this step. apply a thin layer of Grey RTV to the water pump side of the gasket and install the pump itself.


now install the tensioner and spring onto the stud. slide timing belt onto the gears keeping the marks lined up like in the picture. install new thermostat and apply Grey RTV to the housing, no gasket is needed. your hose should come off, mine was stuck on so we just worked around it.




Reinstall the timing belt covers and crank pulley, keep an eye on the half moon key on the crank so it stays in.




Start putting the pulley brackets back on to the motor and reinstalling belts. put the fan/clutch back on, the rad back in, tighten hoses, and reconnect the breather tube to the intake.


All done now fill the radiator back up with coolant and start it back up. bleed the coolant system out and them your all done.

Random Pics:



135000 miles of wear on the belt, sorry couldn't get a pic to not be blurry guess it was too close
 
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13
#2 ·
I liked the 3 pic from the bottom.

Your truck probably stands a good 1ft above stock SE with 16 in tires. I find it a pain to work on as I'm about 5'8. Seems like I am always using a step stool for mine. Can't imagine what yours would be like. Maybe I might be able to get to the radiator cap, but probably couldn't see inside it.
 
#8 ·
haha well I'm 6'2" so the reach ain't too bad for me how it sat. doing the lower stuff wasn't the funnest though.

the job at nissan pays for 7 labor hours. it took me about 5 start to finish but i aslo stopped for over an hour while waiting for fronty2wd to get off of work, gotta love air tools! the job isn't very hard just very involved and intimidating. i just wish i got a pic of the block without the water pump on it or anything.
 
#4 ·
I need to do mine soon...not looking fwd to it!
 
#9 ·
Good job on the write up bro. This is something just about anyone can do. The only special tool you need is the crank pulley removal tool. It is commercially available and a lot of parts stores will rent them to you. The trick though is finding the bolts to fit in the two holes in the crank pulley and still be long enough to go through the puller. The bolts are 6mm x1.25 thread pitch and i believe they are 80mm long. Do not attempt to use a jaw style puller on the crank pulley. It is cast material so it chips easily... also the pulley on the 3.3 is two pieces, if you try to pull on the outer edge of the pulley you will seperate the rubber holding the inner and outer pulley together. SO USE THE CORRECT PULLER i know this from experience. Also like mudpunisher said it sucks cleaning the water pump gasket off the block. I recommend a scraper with replaceable razors. then once you think you have it all off you can use a whiz wheel (nice technical name) to polish the surface up so that you can be sure you got all of the gasket off or you can get some emery cloth and clean it up by hand which is going to take a little time but well worth saving your self 500+ dollars in labor. The only other thing i can think of is you will need a 1 1/16th socket for the crank pulley bolt. I recommend an impact wrench for the job or a big breaker bar and someone to counter it with a strap wrench around the outer diameter of the pulley.
If anyone has any questions feel free to pm me(i'm not on here real often anymore)


X2 ON A STICKY FOR THIS THREAD
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well today i figured it was time to do my timing belt. its lasted me 135k hard miles, and yes that is 30k overdue. so its time to do something for my truck. Brand new water pump, timing belt, tensioner, and thermostat from Nissan.

start by removing the breather tube that goes from bank 1/2 to the intake. remove the fan and loosen nuts that hold on the fan clutch to the pulley while the belt is still on. remove brackets that hold the radiator in then pull off all 3 belts. Set the crank pulley to the TDC marking and pull off using a puller. the pulley is very easily damaged so be careful. you can see the puller in the bottom of the pic
...
hey man, my 03 needs a new water pump. the shaft must have gotten bent in the wreck because my fans wobbling like a mofo. how hard was it to put on? anyway i just rolled up on 121000 miles and i was wondering if i needed to do my t belt too.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Inyourface1650
should be done at 105k.

OP make the pics smaller will ya. They will be more usefull that way.
yeah no problem i didnt realize how big they were haha

punter23
Special tools-
Didn't you need a belt tensioning tool? I think that's what it's called... it costs like $600? The guy I had doing my belt had to abort mid way through because he said he absolutely needed this tool.
no none needed, just a 14mm(iirc) socket or wrench to tighten the tensioner.

B-Rock
hey man, my 03 needs a new water pump. the shaft must have gotten bent in the wreck because my fans wobbling like a mofo. how hard was it to put on? anyway i just rolled up on 121000 miles and i was wondering if i needed to do my t belt too.
you sure its not just the aluminum part that bolts to the fan then the water pump? if not, its not really hard at all just take your time and the old gasket is a pain to get off!!! and yeah your belt was due 16k ago.

Abmobil
Since we cant tell from the pic, How did the belt look with 135k on it?
Did it like it was on its last leg or was there usable life left in it?
prob could have made it to 150k if i wanted to. it didnt look too bad, but it was starting to separate a little at the teeth. if you are leaking oil out of any of the seals or leaking coolant from the water pump, the fluids degrade the belt so its a good idea to do cause my water pump had started to leak










 
#18 ·
Im thinking about doing mine and try and save some money. So is this just a matter of taking fan off,rad out,try and get at timing belt. Did you loc tight water pump,timing belt adjuster
no its got 4 washers on it, it is not necessary to lock-tight the tensioner.

pics on first page are also fixed, made them much more reasonable, thank you Zero Six LE
 
#17 ·
Just dump the clutch fan and go with the electrical fan.
 
#19 ·
Hey do I need a torque wrench and how many lbs of torque do I need on what bolts?
 
#20 ·
Something you guys might want to check when you do your timing belts/water pumps. That's the seal between the goose neck and the block. Mine started leaking there 2 years after I did my belt. I thought it was the bypass hose, but it turned out to be the goose neck gasket. This was harder to repair than the belt replacement and the cost was about the same. Gravy (and cheaper) to do if you're doing your belt.
 
#21 ·
Mine already leaks there and I have the gasket!!!! Im all over this ish! lol Great tip though. Im also replacing all of the coolant line clamps
 
#23 ·
to change the timing belt only the book time is 2.8 hrs not 7.0 hrs . any dealer in your area charging that kinda hours is raping there customers. usually most dealers will add up tp and hour for rust and such but the add for t stat and water pump would be under an hour for additional time I am thinking the most they could legitimately charge is 5 hrs and thats a stretch.
Its always nice to see pics but for the guys attempting this I would still get a manual you really need to see how to time this it is critical. The gates belt kit I got when I did mine came with accurate instructions I got it from rock auto for under 50 bucks belt and tensioner..
Its really cool that you took the time to do the pics and write up the thread I am sure it will help many.
 
#24 ·
105,312 miles and I just did my timing belt replacement today. I did install a new thermostat and all new V-belts. I did not replace the water pump as I find it difficult to replace something that should last 300K or more. I have a Mitsubishi P/U 4cyl with 300,000 plus with 5 new timing belts, but it does have the original water pump. My Isuzu Trooper V6 has 260,000 with original water pump also. Plus, I do like to tinker, so although the job does take some time, with diligence most people can do the job themselves. It does save BIG bucks. The only issue was removing the crank bolt, as I had to stop in the middle of the job and rent a chain wrench (for $5.80). The next project is to replace the spark plugs with Iridiums. Not looking forward to that back plug.
 
#25 ·
Back plug is easy enough I used a 3/8 impact swivel,5/8 plug socket,and a 6 inch extension I put those on the plug then put a 3 inch extension on top with a ratchet long handle. Once I broke it freetook the ratchet off and top extension turn out by hand.
Use a piece of rubber hose slide it over new plug thread it into head and final torque with the ratchet and extensions. the biggest problem I had with the plugs is they wouldn't come out of the head or there so much crap in the hole I couldn't get a socket over the plug
 
#26 ·
Day 2 replace Spark plugs

Wrong thread but continuation of 105,000 mile maintenance. Changed to Bosch Fusion Iridium spark plugs earlier today. #6 was tricky but thanks to all the previous posts and photos, the entire job was less than an hour. The reminder to apply anti-seize to the plugs was appreciated. For #6 I did tape the 5/8 plug socket to a six inch extension, used a 3/8 u-joint, another six inch extension, 1/2 to 3/8 drive adapter and 1/2 drive ratchet, unsnapped the brake lines running along the fire wall and used a bungee to hold them a bit up and that gave me another inch to wiggle in. The other 5 plugs I used a 9 inch extension (also taped to the 5/8 plug socket) and they were easier. Many thanks for the tips and with the proper tools, most anyone can do the swap and again save big BUCKS. Good luck...
 
#27 ·
7 hours is a little much for a shop to charge but if they are trying to do cam seals and crank seal. I for one hate doing crank seals. The crank pulley is a pita to get off. You can't get any real puller on it because it's so close to the block and it's usuallly seized on there.... so it may be worth it for some of you that know you have a leak behind the timing cover to pay a dealer to do it if your not 100% confident in yourself.
 
#28 ·
Fantastic topic!
I just bought a used Desert Runner with 101K on it and will be doing this maintenance on it.
Need to ask. There were about 3 or 4 pictures in the original post that won't open for me, just boxes with red x's. Anyone else have that problem?
Thanks,
Bill
 
#29 ·
The only picture of imortance is the better one of the cam gears. Basically once you get the upper and lower timing covers off make sure you are still at tdc and then look at your cams, there is one notch in each cam gear (usually highlighted from the factory with white paint, which you can see in other pictures on here) on the passenger side cam gear it should be pointing towards the upper left side of the motor if your standing at the front bumper and the drivers side should be pointing towards the upper right part of the engine. IF you look closeer there are little marks on the timing covers that are almost lined up with these notches on the cam gears. If your cam gear notches are the opposite of listed above then you need to turn the crank 360* while the belt is still on to get the cams in time. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU USE A FACTORY NISSAN BELT.. They have marks that line up with the cam gear notches and the notch that is on the crank gear. By using these referance marks it's almost impossible to screw up the timing of the engine. Not all aftermarket belts have these marks and it's a nice peice of mind when you can look at the notches on the timing cover and look at the lines on the belt that are lined up wtih the cam gear notches to give you some assurance.
 
#30 ·
I just realized that I never posted my pictures on this thread.... I even have them all labeled out... Ill get to it soon...
 
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