How often change timing belt?

#1

As a primer to this message I want to say that I am one of the guys that has had pretty good luck out of my SE30 and don’t necessarily agree with all that umm, say Ranger would say is required. This is by no means to disrespect Ranger but I just don’t have his type of problems and I think that those new to this game need to hear that every so often. As an example, I still run coolant hoses of unknown age. I picked the best of the bunch from the pile and run them. I use a stock oil cooler with stock filter location, no warning lights, same shocks for over 4 seasons, use off the shelf Mobil 1 oil use E36 off the shelf radiator, reuse flywheel bolts among others, use Castrol ATF in transmission, etc, etc. You get the idea. I have never had a mechanical DNF or DNS that was not cause of driver error (bent trailing arm after getting hit by legends car, nosing into guard rail after Miata push me off track, etc).

So, now with that said, how often should we change timing belts? Mine current one has gone three seasons and just wondering when most of you guys chose to change them?

Thanks,

Michael
Great Lakes SE30 Series Director

#2

I never had an engine last long enough to worry about it .

#3

3 years for a race engine seems about right, considering they spend virtually all their time north of 5,000 RPM, so the service life has to be much shorter, and do the water pump while in there.

#4

3 years seems about right, if you just want to be safe change it every 2. It’s such a piece of cake to change that you’d feel pretty silly if you let a belt break on you!!