CVH timing belt tension?

[overrun]

Changed water pump, tensioner and belt on my Escort, this afternoon, but I am not convinced all is well - haven't ran the engine, since.

 

The previous belt etc were an unknown quantity to me, so thought best to change them for a Gates/First Line kit.

 

I was able to remove the tensioner, without it affecting the tension on the belt at all.

I thought this was very odd.

 

On reassembly, though, the new stuff feels the same.

 

I can deflect the belt, on its longest run, by about half an inch and rotate it through 90 deg - and no further, with ease.

 

The tensioner will not slide any futher forward, when forced with screwdriver, so I have nipped the bolts up.

 

It is OK, according to the book, but as I say, I am not convinced.

Obviously I will turn it over by hand to check the marks and settle the belt, before I fire it up, but can anyone reassure me that CVH belts are always on the slack side?

 

I have left the timing covers and bottom pulley off for now.

[saucedoctor]

MASSIVE PICTURE ALERT! Make of this what you will. Summat about a modified tensioner for pre-88 cars.

[overrun]

Guess that must be the spring loaded tensioner, I have read about.

 

Hmmm. Pretty annoying if Gates have sent me an inferior one.

 

I WUNDA WOT FAWD PURV WIL NO

[CreepingJesus]

If it'll pull out an inch or so, and twist 90º like you say, then it'll be fine. That was the rule of thumb, last time I worked on Fords, and I've stuck by it with everything else.

[overrun]

Cheers mate.

 

I go with the half a turn thing, usually. Just the amount it pulls out on this seems a bit excessive.

 

Suppose it could be argued it's a long run, with nothing between crank and cam.

 

Will spin it over tomorrow and report back.

[fordperv]

hi overrun what you describe is correct for the rule of thumb on these, like you say there is a good distance between cam and crank pulley with nothing in between which means it will pull out that but further, just to put your mind at ease and because i care, i just popped out and sorted some piccies to show you, this has a genuine ford tensioner on (iirc they are made by gates) which was new when i built the engine 3000 miles ago, ignore that nasty cam pulley its one i popped on instead of the vernier, thats going on when its cossie management is complete so i can have it set up on the rolling road

 

 

picture to show belt at rest

 

 

total amount the belt deflects, that is the total it will move with a bit of force

 

 

that to me is roughly the distance you describe, sorry about the camera angle change in the final shot but you get the idea

 

hope this helps to put your mind at ease

[overrun]

Cheers, FP. Much appreciated.

 

It does look about the same, agreed. I will lash the pulley and alt back on tomorrow, once I have cleaned up the cam belt covers.

(You don't have a spare rubber 'gasket' for the top cover, by any chance?

 

This afternoon, I decided to remove the old dash and replace the heater matrix, instead of cleaning the covers - cos that makes sense.

 

Is the above engine, the one from myor missus' ERST? Sounds like it will be fun, when all done!

[overrun]

I forgot I took these, last night.

 

 

Belt at rest

 

I would say ignore my rusty pulley - not that I have another to go on, but you will then pay more attention to all the shite stuck to the side of the block. Lol.

 

Should I be changing the crank bolt, btw? I notice the current one is stamped 'GSF'.

[fordperv]

I havnt got a spare gasket for the upper cam cover unfortunatelyit might be worth popping your local scrappy and see if they have a mk6 escort 1.4 cvh I've got a feeling they may be very similar, yeah that is in the mrs rs, its certainly a laugh, she let me build the engine for it in the house as everything going in it was new and things like the crank block and head had been cleaned at the engineers, it surprises a lot of people and is fun to drive but to get the most out of everything that's been done it needs the management

[overrun]

I would be lucky to find a mk1 Focus in the yards around here, now. The best ones have closed down.

 

Bet that was a fun engine build, on the living room floor, in front of the telly.

I wonder how many times you come up against an RST and it is actually running a standard 130(?) BHP? Lol.

[fordperv]

It was fun , that's a good point how many rs turbos still just have the Ford quoted 132bhp, by just chipping ( without the chip the Ecu shits itself at 10psi) and turning the boost up has great results, before you factor in what most have got which is cams, hybrid turbos and bigger intercoolers, the main limiting factor is the ke jetronic it's at its limits at over 200 bhp, often goes out of tune making them run lean and melting pistons