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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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#31 ·
Im in real need of some advice. Ive got everything torn down to just the crankshaft pulley. How do I hold the pulley in order to remove the nut. I have sprayed it with pen. lube and left the alternator belt on it to see if that gave me resistance. I do not have an impact, or access to one, I dont think it would fit anyway. Any advice would be helpful.
 
#32 ·
Put a breaker bar on the nut with a helper pipe and put the truck in 1st gear with the e- brake on. Try to crank on it and breal it loose. If that doesn't work like it didn't work for me. Take the breaker and cheater and get it wedged on top of the fender well on the drivers side, hook your battery up and take it out of gear. Hit the starter once or twice until it breaks free. It works and didn't damage anything. Let me know if that does the trick!
 
#33 ·
WOW! Amaizing, that worked beautifully. Now how do I get the pulley of. I was sold some dinky 20.00 puller and I dont think its even for a crank pulley. Where Can I rent or get one that works. Or do you have another backyard mechanic trick that works? I love it, it took me 2 minutes to get that bolt out and yet i spent 20 minutes trying another way.
 
#35 ·
I have found the two threaded holes in the front of the pulley but cannot figure out what size of bolt they are. Are theses the holes to use to pull the pulley off and does anyone know what size they are?
 
#36 ·
Man, did you ever get that pulley off? I went and rented the biggest 3 jaw puller I could find. Use only two jaws and only it will only grab the middle pulley. Kind of tip it up have a buddy turn the center bolt a little at a time and kinda pry down. it will come off.... I wouldnt pry too hard though because if you separate the three from one another, your out allot of cast buying a new pulley... Mudpunnisher bought a big puller and then made some of his own parts so that it would grab on better...
 
#37 ·
Yea, I went to checker and got a 6" jaw puller. It worked perfectly, the jaws fit on the very back pulley so that i wouldnt have to worry about separating them. The only hardest part besides getting that bolt out of the pulley, and getting the pulley off was getting the new belt on. An extra set of hands comes in handy. Other then that, it was pretty easy and straight forward. I finished late at night and must have forgotten to tighten the nut on the tensioner for the fan and power steering cause this morning when i checked for leaks and stuff, the tensioner was sideways. Luckily it didnt damage anything but i lost the nut and it dosnt seem to be a standard or metric. I had to go to nissan and order a new nut. i wont get it for 5 days, so Im stuck till then.
 
#38 ·
Hey guys, thanks a lot for throwing up this thread. It's been extremely helpful! I'm getting ready to do the same procedure on my '02. My only two questions were how do I get the crank nut loose, and how to pull the pulley. Looks like it should be smooth sailing *fingers crossed*
 
#39 ·
Read up about 5 posts....:laugh::nana:
 
#41 ·
timing marks

Hey guys maybe you can help me with a little problem I am having. I am currently putting my '01 3.3L frontier back together after replacing both head gaskets and once I started installing the timing belt I noticed that their is not a timing mark on the oil pump housing like the manual says their is. Has anyone one else ran into this problem and if so how did you overcome it. I have the OEM replacement belt that has the marks on it. If I line up the two cam gears and the crank gear to the belt and turn the crank 2 full revs one cam is 1/2 tooth off and the crank is who knows where because I have no mark to line it up with. Any help would be great.
 
#42 · (Edited)
well does the timing belt tensioner develope a whine like the 2nd gens cuz i have exactly what they are hearing. anyway. i need to replace my radiator power steering pump and my steering gear and the water pump. my front 3 drive belts also. i was wondering. do i need to remove the timing belt in order to get the pump out? cuz im worried about screwing up the timing. or theres marks on there or what guys thanks
 
#44 ·
Well...I did the timing belt change on my 01 S/C over the weekend after 110,000 miles. I figured I would add my findings to contribute back a little to the forum which I have been using frequently.

It definitely didn't go smoothly. Started on Saturday and didn't finish until today (Monday). Everything was very, very rusty to say the least. Problems didn't arise until I needed to get the crankshaft pulley off. I didn't have a chain wrench so I ended up breaking the bolt loose using the starter and a breaker bar trick mentioned earlier...worked like a charm after about 1.5 hours of deciding whether to do it or not. Then came the task of getting the pulley off of the shaft. I rented the pulley removal tool kit from Advanced Auto but it wouldn't fit behind the pulley. I couldn't get any bolts to thread into the pulley to use the harmonic puller with because it was so rusted. I fabricated my own puller to fit behind the back of the pulley and ended up chipping a piece of the pulley off so I would recommend not doing that. Finally after coming back the next day with some supplies, I retapped the holes to what they should have been (M6 x 1.00) and got my bolts in to use the harmonic puller with (I've attached pictures, hopefully they will help understand how to do this and save some time). ***Be careful and don't thread them in too far (you only need like 1/4") like I did and bend the timing belt cover****re

Got the pulley off and then replaced the belt. My belt didn't really show any wear at all....it was pretty loose though. Put the new one on while I was in there and started reassembling. This is when I remembered I didn't have a way to tighten the crank nut.....:crikey: bad news again. Since everything was closed, had to wait until today to find a chain wrench. I ended up finding two that weren't big enough so I spliced the chains together and tightened it up. Put everything back on and so far it hasn't blown up.

So, things I definitely recommend you have:
6M x 1.00 tap (if badly rusted), two 6M x 1.00 x 80mm bolts with large diameter washers, harmonic puller, a chain wrench that fits the pulley, and a buddy to help hold it.

I'll get a better picture of my belt and post it.
 

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#45 · (Edited)
OK I'm in the middle of doing this myself and I have a few questions since it's my first time ever doing a timing belt.

EDIT:
At first I thought that the cams were one tooth of the timing belt off but I think that the crank was just not set to exactly TDC. I moved the crank a little and now the cams are lined up with the marks properly. Right now, I can't see the punch mark on the engine at the crank because there's a ton of grease there and it's dark now, but I can see the punch mark on the cog. I counted 40 teeth between the TDC marks on the cams and 43 teeth between the TDC mark on the left (driver's) side cam and the TDC mark on the crank. This is verified by the factory belt's markings but if anyone else could verify this for me it'd be an extra sanity check. It seems as though putting the dotted line on the right (passenger's) side cam markings, and the next sold line on the left (driver's) side cam marking, will let the belt line up exactly like the old one is. There is also a "FRONT" label on the new belt with arrows pointing towards the front of the vehicle that make me think I'm on the right track. If any of this sounds wrong please let me know.

Also, I noticed that the instructions on this post call for the water pump to be removed after the old belt is removed but before the new one is put on. Any particular reason for this? I'd like to do it while the old belt is still on so I don't accidentally move one of the cam gears or something.

Finally, I want to make sure that the engine is going to run properly before I put all that stuff back in and fire it up. Is it OK to start the engine up with the new belt on for a few seconds just to see if it knocks or makes some funny noise before I put all the accessory belts and covers and such back on?
 
#46 ·
Sounds like you are on the right track. While I was trying to get the new belt on, I slipped and knocked the cam sprockets all off...not sure how I did it. But anyway, I just lined them all back up with the marks on the engine and then lined the belt up with those and went with it. I turned the crack a couple of times once I got the belt on to make sure nothing was hitting and then assembled it back together.
 
#47 ·
OK well I answered one of my questions! The timing belt has to be off to remove the water pump because part of the water pump is physically behind the belt. The thermostat on the other hand can be replaced without removing the belt. I put a line of red RTV silicone along the outside of the metal housing of the thermostat (the store didn't have any gray RTV so I figured that would work well enough) and just popped the new one in. Hopefully pulling the old belt off tomorrow (it's pretty loose at 127k), then the water pump. Then putting it all back together!
 
#159 · (Edited)
For those who have the same question in the future, the feeler gauge procedure is for after engine overhaul or reassembly, where the cams and valves have been disturbed. It says so in a bold black header at the top of page EM-82.

The belt deflection method is for replacing or adjusting a used belt, presumably while keeping the existing tensioner. The deflection is measuring that the tensioner is still keeping the proper tension on the belt. If you're replacing the tensioner, the manual only has you turn the tensioner both directions twice to check that it moves properly.



For tightening the crank pulley, I modified an idea I saw on YouTube. I wrapped one of the old drive belts around the pulley back on itself and then wrapped a ratchet strap over that, probably a half dozen wraps, after first having set one of the ratchet strap's hooks into a hole on a plate that braces the front crossmember to the right frame rail. The old belt and the strap wraps provided enough resistance that I could get 150lbs of torque. Make sure the strap is routed so that it doesn't damage the tranny cooler lines while you're torquing.
 
#53 ·
Yeah 6x1.25 definitely doesn't exist. When I did mine I thought I saw that someone used a 6x1.25 and spent all day (literally) trying to find it at 12 different places. Then I gave up and just used the 6x1.00 that I found earlier that day and it worked perfectly.
 
#54 ·
Thanks for clarifying that. I kind of figured it out later when I went to work and I went to the toolroom and looked at the taps they had in the drawer and saw 6mm X 1.00, 6mm X .75, and 6mm X .50 sizes, but no 1.25 pitch.
Then trying to find 80mm long bolts, found nothing longer than 50mm. We had 6mm all-thread at work, so I cut a few pieces about 90mm long then welded a nut at one end. Now to find the time to take the truck down for a weekend and get 'er done.
 
#55 ·
great sticky

just wanted to say a couple things.

thanks to mud for the post as i am about to do this shortly.

what i think needs to be mentioned is if the timing belt breaks, then the engine will be toast. so for a 30$belt or a 70$ timing kit it doesnt really make sense to not change it at or around 100k.


i am at 115k and having issues keeping the timing where i want it set. i am getting the 70$kit as i don have the 7k for an engine.

anyways thanks for the post.
 
#56 ·
Finally got some time to do my TB. I have an '01 SE CC. Thanks to the information on this forum and the service manual it wasn't too bad. The only difficult things I ran into were some rusted hose clamps and the fact that the Craftsman puller I bought for this job didn't have the smaller bolt. Luckily I had a piece of all thread that was the right size and length to work with the puller. Once I had it all rigged up it work great.
The other thing that works really well is the trick to use the starter to get the crankshaft pulley bolt out. I did that and it took 2 seconds to get it off.
The T-belt itself didn't look too bad after 113,000 miles but this is maintenance I wouldn't put off too long after 100,000 miles. It was just a bit loose on the pulley's and looked like a little dry cracking near the teeth. You never know what's going on under that cover.
Thanks again to the guys who've posted here. The tips and photos are helpful.
 
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