seattle951

I just got my car back to Seattle. My car has been in storage and in my wife's driveway in Virginia for the last 5 years. I had the car inspected by the shop that built the motor.

He replaced the wiring harnesses for the Speed and Reference Sensor, Idle Stabilizer Valve and DME temperature sensor with the Lindsey Racing replacement kits (Thanks LR). The car is running much smoother.

The engine was built 8 years ago and has maybe 4,000 miles on it. He recommended replacing the timing belt ASAP. I agreed and purchased a Kevlar unit from Lindsey Racing.

http://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Pors...57-04-KEV.html

Does anyone have experience with this product? Does it increase the amount of time between belt changes?

He also had me replace the front tires since they had flat spots. The rear tires look OK but the rubber seems hard, especially compared to the new tires.

I am running 255/40 ZR 17s on the front and 285/40 ZR 17s on the rear. I replaced the fronts with Michelin Pilot Sports. Michelin does not make the tire in 285 width.

Any recommendations about tires? There are very few to choose from in this size combination. I am almost thinking it is time to move up to 18 inch rims to have a wider variety of tires available.

Paulyy

I would replace the timing belt as per manual. Even though it is kevlar, There's so little experience on failure rate.

Cyberpunky

I have Michelin PS3's all round. Great tyres so see what other size you could get as having them all the same brand/type is a good thing. Seems like 285 would be too little stagger anyway with 255 on front(not an expert BTW). 295 maybe ?

962 kid

With the kevlar belt, do the normal retension, then check again in a few thousand miles. I've found they take longer to stretch/lose tension than the standard belt.

As for overall life, its hard to say. Look at the condition of it when it would normally be due for replacement.

jmj951

I would just call Lindsey about the Kevlar belt. You can usually talk directly to either Mike or Dave and they will tell you exactly how to approach it.

For the tires, right away I can see the relative sizing front-to-rear is incorrect. With the sizes you have, your rear tires are actually a bit bigger in diameter than your fronts. The sidewall size is actually proportional based on the tire width, so a tire width of 285 with a 40 sidewall is actually going to have a taller sidewall than 255 with a 40 sidewall. The original diameter of the 285/40 when new was around 25.9", whereas the 255/40 is only 25.1" - that's almost a full inch taller.

Since you just bought a really nice pair of 17's with a 25" diameter, I suggest buying a 'complementary' pair, but as you mentioned you have limited options here. The best match for the tires you bought are either the 205/50/17 (25.1" diameter) or 225/45/17 (diameter not reported, but from experience I can tell you it's a good match), so depending on the wheels you have you could put the 205/50's or 225/45's in the front and move the 255/40's to the back. Both the 986 Boxster's and 996 carrera 2's with 17" wheels had 205/50's in the front and 255/40's in the rear as original equipment. Personally, I substituted 225/45/17 in the front of my 996.

These are just ideas, but I can't exactly tell you what will work until I know the specs on your wheels. Can you post the actual wheel sizes here?

pole position

Those Kevlar belts squeal ... use OEM

seattle951

The wheels were custom built to match the body work that extended the rear wheel wells by several inches. Oversized, carbon fiber fenders where used in the front. The 255s and 285s are a perfect fit for the bodywork. The car is lowered with Escort Cup suspension the wheels fit inside the wheel wells. The car would look pretty silly with smaller tires.

This work was done 8 years ago and I have forgotten the wheel dimensions. The car has been in storage for years. If I remember correctly, I have 17x8 in the front and 17x10 in the back. I could be wrong. The 255/285 combination was the recommendation of the wheel manufacture (CCW).

seattle951

The belts should be delivered today. The shop that suggested the belts uses them with other clients. There was no mention of squealing. I hope you are wrong.

SamGrant951

have one on my racecar, doesn't squeal...yet. been on a few years.

gruhsy

Just to add. I have the Kevlar and mine does not squeal.

Bearings "rollers" are always the issue not the belts. Someone needs to develop better ones

Mike Lindsey

Gates states the same interval of 40k miles on stock and kevlar belt.

If the best squeals, it's probably the balance shaft belt was set to tight.

333pg333

What is the advantage of using the Kevlar belt over the stock on a high revving race motor Mike?

Mike Lindsey

Failing timing belts are one of the Achilles heels of this engine. Seems like a good place to invest in something better if there is one. Lets call it cheap insurance. Gates calls it their high performance "racing" belt, as apposed to their passenger car belt, so I will just side with them since they know much more about belts then we do. Higher RPM, stiffer valve springs, more aggressive cam profiles, all of which work the belt harder seem reason enough to put on something better for whatever the reason it is.

seattle951

The cost of replacing my current belt is all labor. The extra $100 for Kevlar belt is not important compared to the cost of the project.

jmj951

In that case, there's no way to really do this properly on 17" wheels because you can't get 285/30/17, they just don't exist. You'll need to either:
* switch to 18" wheels, or
* buy a compromise tire for the rear 17" wheels that will end up being 1" taller than the fronts. You can get several tires in 285/40/17. It seems like the best match is a Continental ExtremeContact DW or Pirelli PZero System.

I'm sure you can resell the Michelin PS2's, but the wheels would be a difficult sell. There just aren't many cars out there that would properly fit them, and some buyers might have concerns about mounting taller tires on the rear vs the front. It's always possible for CCW to modify the wheels ($$) by changing out the inside half (assuming they're 3-piece) so that you can mount a 255/40/17 - that way it would still have the same dimensions between the hub and the fender, it would just be further away from the inner wheelwell.