Just out of curiosity while we are on the subject of timing belts here. I have a question about the cam seals. I skipped mine because I was too nervous to take the cam gears off. (I am the nervous type when working on my own vehicle for some reason)Did the crank though. Do you dial the crank back 60 degrees to level out the pistons before messing with the cams? I was taught that in auto mechanics school along time ago. In case you spin a cam you wont smack a valve into the top of a piston. Like I said this was a long time ago and am not sure if this is correct.

I loosen the cam bolts with the tension still on the old belt, then remove everything. There is actually a special tool to hold them if you don't have the air tools of a pro to loosen them. You need it to get the right torque on the bolts when you put them back on as well. You have to have a way to hold them.

And the same holds truer today than yesteryear, you don't want to smack the piston with the valves. Good advice to remember.

Can't put my finger on where I saw it, but I do recall seeing a recommendation from Nissan that the timing belt be replaced after 105K miles, or seven years, whichever comes first.

Personally, I would not trust a belt after 7 years.

I have a 2001, with 121,000 Kilometers (about 70K miles), and did the timimg belt 3 days ago.
The belt was very polished, and a little stretched, but I did find what looked like small cracks between the teeth.
Everything else was solid, and as it was a pretty easy job to get in there I only changed the waterpump and thermostat.
Tension pully was good, spring just a bit rusty.
Now I just have to take a deep breath and pull the intake off to replace the valve cover gaskets. PITA.

I ordered the courtesy kit plus the little 90 degree hose. Plan on tackling it next week.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

Easier than the timing belt.

Ok dumb question, So I am going to dive in this weekend while its warm and torque that idler nut and probably replace the stud. I see in the FSM that the torque on the nut is 32-43ftlbs. Should I assume the torque on the stud is the same?

I'd be comfortable with that. Just use some red loc-tite on the threads of the stud that go into the block.

Started my timing belt today. Disassembly went smoothly, all the belts were in horrible shape and the timing belt was completely stretched out. Had over an inch of play in it...

Here's a quick question for reassembly. For the thermostat housing and the part with the small 90degree elbow hose, what type of RTV can be used? I have permatex black and red.... I noticed that permatex has an actual liquid gasket specifically for thermohousings etc, but the parts store had none... Will I be okay using black or red???

I used the black on mine, dont see any problems with it.

Black would be just fine.

Okay, job is done and all seems fine! Thanks everyone for the input and advice. Much appreciated.

Ok dumb question, So I am going to dive in this weekend while its warm and torque that idler nut and probably replace the stud. I see in the FSM that the torque on the nut is 32-43ftlbs. Should I assume the torque on the stud is the same?



Went in this weekend and replaced the Stud and Torqued the nut. I am not real confident that torquing the stud was such a good idea. The stud twisted alot while torquing it and I am kind of afraid I may have over twisted/stressed it/torqued it by doing so.

I didn't look up the torque on this but make SURE you are dealing with ft-lbs vs. in-lbs. Use a good quality torque wrench as well.

I can say, from historical experience, that they (Nissan FSM) switch around a lot (between ft-lbs and in-lbs) and the results of using the wrong one are ugly I broke off a intake stud on mine. Not too ugly to fix but it was heart wrenching... Odd angle, had to get various kinds of extractors and said a lot of prays to the automobile Gods.

I had horrible flashbacks that reminded me of working on my 1974 RX4 Mazda Rotary Engine at 18 in my family garage on a water pump without a torque wrench where I broke a bolt off and I had to take the entire front of the engine off (thankfully it was designed to come off fairly easily), find a machine shop to extract it and that also carried metric bolts - all in the middle of a snow storm when metric bolts and such were not commonly available at any old local hardware store. Ordering anything from Mazda in 1978 usually meant they sent to Japan for it. Thankfully, one of our family cars was a 1970 VW Beetle... kind of like a snow mobile)

howdy where can l get this kit from? is there an offical service
manual from nissan? those auto store manuals suck

thanks gil

Daylight, if your asking where you can get the timing belt kit, simple Just go here and search for your year X

http://www.courtesyparts.com/xterra-part...532_22_523.html