jonnybgood

Mind sharing your source for the Gates? I pay $100 plus for Porsche T belts in the pretty gray box with the logo lettering on the outside!

85944na

I bought my gates belt at the dealer it wasn't that bad, I only bought the timing belt, the balance belt was crazy expensive.

MAD MAC

I use the contitech OEM brand. Under $30 for the time belt. Anyone have any complaints about them? If this is a bad brand then I'll change it this weekend.

EMBPilot

i bought both because i wanted to see them and feel them. when i called the porsche dealer closest to me they told me that they used Gates belts in their boxes. When i looked at both the belts next to eachother my untrained eye could see little difference. I ended up installing the Gates belt on the cam and used the conti for the balance.

looking back, there are so many guys that maintain there cars very well who use conti and if i had put the conti on i probably wouldnt be thinking twice about it.

Yummybud924

paragon has gates for 40 bucks I think.

Supachink

I orderd a timing belt / balance belt kit from zims because of the price of it, but ended up with a set a flennor belts. I put the flenor belts on my car a few weeks back. They fit, but everyone is right they do seem cheap and thinner then the original belt that came off, not sure which brand that was, but I have my doubts about how long it will last, so ill probably change it out the next free chance that i get.

Serge944

I still have that fleenor belt, new in box. If anyone wants it, its yours for the cost of shipping.

Charlie944

Jon, I bought my last one here and the time before that I got on from Ian at 944Online for about the same price. When the T-belt broke I ordered a rebuilt head from Ian as it was cheaper than replacing the 7 valves I bent and doing a valve job, etc. So when I specified the OE Gates belt he was surprised that I did not opt for the Conti which he said he had been using for 20 years w/o a failure. Both the belt from Paragon and Ian came in a Porsche Box. I was mistaken on the price differential the Conti T-belt is like $12.87 and the Conti Balance Shaft Belt is ~$35.

http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...105.157.04.htm

Below are the pics of the Conti that failed for me, and by the looks of things I was anticipating a seized roller or something and when apart everything was in good working order.

ibkevin

Conti here!

Ed 944T

I've been using Flennor here for years, 3 sets on the daily beater, over 63K miles since I've owned it, and 2 other sets on the garage cars, the belts have been on for 5 years, less than 15K on each car. One is a n/a and the other a turbo.

Never broke a belt on any car, and the belts are all tensioned by feel, no special tools here!

I am sure that not beating on a cold car, and running lighter oil helps a lot. In my old Pontiac days, I would loose timing chains and bend valves left and right by running thick oil and getting on the car when it was still cold...

Cold oil is very rough on chains, let alone belts....

Techno Duck

Anyone have detailed pictures of the Gates belt? Below are pictures of the Continental belt from Paragon...brand new, ordered it about two months ago.

Naplesguy06

I have asked several experts on this question. Porsche says thier belts with thier grey boxes and black print carry a 2 year warranty. Continental, Gates and Reuville I hear are 1 year. I did not know the quality on the contitech was inferior, thanks for clearing that up, I will spend the extra money on the Porsche parts. Why so cheap on an item thats unforgiving when it fails. Unless of course you like to remove and machine/polish heads and replace valves and guides. Lucky for me I only have 8 . However, a belt failure would force me to have the heads removed and polished and maybe even some shaving and polishing performed for and extra 30 horses. My vote is the best parts when it comes to belts, water pumps and rollers. Would you want to put cheap batteries in your pacemaker???

Yummybud924

but how do you know contitech is significantly better if at all than gates. Just looking at the belt is not enough. contitech is used in lots of german cars so if it wasn't good I think there would be a lot of complaints.

jonnybgood

My S belt is wider than the 8v. Paragon sells the OEM for the 8v but the picture of the 16v belt above the 8v on their website is likely a Conti. So thanks for the link but I am still looking at the more expensive price.

All the belts I have purchased in the Porsche box have all been labeled PORSCHE. I have never seen a Gates belt. Perhaps they don't supply OEM belts for the S but only for the 8v.

In the first pic below the Porsche is on top and the Conti is below. I tried to show the difference in thickness but they did not come out too well.

One issue I will confess to is that my water pump bearing was bad and probably heating the belt more than usual. The second pic shows 6 missing teeth. There were three other areas of up to four missing teeth. Even so when you compare them in person it is obvious the Porsche belt would stand up to much more abuse than the Conti.

One difference between the two belts is the small v at the tip of each tooth. I think this would be an identifier if the printing was worn off.

If you look in the first photo carefully the two right teeth on the Conti (lower belt) are separating from the belt. Mileage on the conti was 16k, on the Porsche it was 35k.

jonnybgood

Oh yes it is!

Stick with your Conti all you want, just be sure all other issues are taken care of and you will probably be ok. If you want a measure of protection for the unforseen problem then spend the extra money.

I paid a shop more than I want to admit for a top end rebuild and he went into the rod bearings against my wishes so it was more than just the head rebuild. Because of my experience I will gladly spend $70 more for a belt that will look as good after 60k miles as it did when I put it in and give me greater piece of mind during that time. That is just the way I am.