Just be sure to inspect the ENTIRE belt ,one local prior to intalling a blower had eyeballed his he maintained it looked "perfect" I still advised he change which he reluctantly did But he then told me that it was missing 4-5 teeth in spot where it was not obvious until he rotated the engine. Lots of things happen to the belt system many are installation errors it is very difficult sometimes to determine what happened or why especially if the mechanic doing the tear down did the original "work" not everyone will admit to making mistakes or take responsibility for them. Numerous 16 valve engines have had heads removed to fix bent valves when in fact there were none ! but they got a valve "job" anyway.

 

Anthony,
Please post if your friend confirms on the identity of the kevlar TB deal: I've used a specific TB in both cars of a 'dimpled' tooth HTD design. The manufacturer claims an unspecified new construction that runs quieter and is non-stretch. I can attest to the latter, as no retensioning has been required in my small sample. The main belt appears thinner & lighter - but I cannot hazard a guess as to the reinforcing fabric. They did hit me for $85 at 'jobbers' rate, so they are somewhat more costly.

 

Does the new Kevlar belt has a thinner cross section or were you referring to the width?

 

Thanks Jim,

I will make sure to carefully inspect every tooth and surface. I learned the hard way that simple once overs only lead to problems never again.

Will do Garth,

As soon as I hear I will let you know.

 

I've no knowledge about a kevlar belt ... : the oem spec width of 1" is maintained within a 25-26mm range of all I've seen - not bad for manufacturing varience, especially considering that that includes a few used, but not abused belts. Thickness has been ( in the tooth valley) an average of 2.7mm- with 2.4mm the value of the dimpled tooth belt. That all means little, as I just measures an unidentified old HDT relic at 2.3mm - with no abnormal scuffing on the backside. Pretty small differences in any case.

 

Ok that's good, as long as the thickness doesn't effect the cam timing.

 

Correct - The TBs contribution to cam timing is dependent on the number of teeth and their precise spacing - that is why belt stretch is undesirable, for the length change taken up by correct tensioner adjustment retards total timing and creates a (small) timing differential between the heads: cam timing is independent of TB thickness ( or width, for that matter).