Swagger93

Woah! pulled the new timing belt out of the box today and the new one has a smaller width than the old one! it doesnt possibly look like this difference could be accounted for by belt stretch.

the belt says 944 on it.

thanks

evan 1988 944 S ("S" being very important)

83na944

IIRC, there are 15mm and 18mm widths. Not sure, but I think either will work. Better wait for someone to post who knows for sure.

Swagger93

Bump.

meanmaroon951

well on my old n/a the replacement was skinnier no promblems at 5000 miles if it helps

pete944

The S uses the wider belt. See if you can exchange the thinner one.

IceShark

Timing belt or balance shaft belt? As I recall from my retension notes Clark's garage mentions the balance shaft belt has an old style that is 15mm wide and a new style that is 18mm wide. It makes a difference in the tension you set it at with the old style getting less tension.

Dave in Chicago

Yup, T-belt on my 968 is much wider than the 944 8V I had. Check the P/N's to make sure you have the right one for the 16V head. Seems they got wider with the 16V set-up.

Balance shaft belts have been revised over time as well, make sure you have the latest P/N there too.

Not a snob or anything, but I don't see broken Porsche belts often and have a number of pro mechanics that will install nothing but. Food for thought.

83na944

IceShark is correct. I was thinking of the BS belt.

Of course, tht doesn't mean that Dave is wrong about the timing belt.

ljd-924SE

i recall someone mentioning that 8 valve owners will often use the wider 16 valve belt on their cars. can anyone confirm this?

944T4ME

To use the wider belt on an 8v, would you need to change the pulleys or??

Porsche-O-Phile

Good question - it seems like it would be a good upgrade although I'd be concerned about belt "walk" on the pulleys potentially getting snagged on or rubbing against (among other things) the front cover, the rear cover, the water pump bracket (if installed) or the balance shaft belts. If none of these are an issue, why not use the wider and arguably stronger one?

Cass944

i put the wider belts on my car when i changed. sunset porsche said i should use the wider belt now that i have an updated water pump. the new belt works fine in place of the old one. but the thing is that it whines like a new belt but the whine NEVER goes away. or at least not for a loooong time. the whine is kinda cool though. gets the civic guys jazzed up thinking its a supercharger or some stuff like that.

heybiff

And the reply i got was about like this, with one poster saying the wider belts superceeded the origionals for all models. That made sense to me. Unfortunately I have no way of verifying that myself. HTH.

-heybiff

Legoland951

I love it.... BS belt. I think I will start using that term.

Danno

So how wide are the timing-belts on the 16V cars? From the rubbing marks on my pulleys, it appears they can take a 5mm wider belt with no problems. When I 1st did a timing-belt job on the 951, I was amazed at how small the belt was. On my Supra, the timing-belt was at least twice as wide... then again, the service-interval was 100k-miles too...