It's still pretty easy to change a Subi belt :-) (just bugging you, relax,
he he he)

Now, you go for presidency Jim, if i was American, i would vote for you big
time!!!

Ben
ps.: yea, i went 100 miles trying to find a campground, none, NOTHING
available (craSy Quebekers)!!! the hell with it, i'm camoing in my backyard
tonigh...

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:50:51 -0400, Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM> wrote:

>The thread started with a question as to the in-place difficulty of changing
>a subie timing belt. A labor time contrary to that stated in a previous post
>was reported, it was questioned, then the thread-a-splode.
>
>With regard to someone trying to find a low point, bad point... good. They
>should. They should be grilling, challenging, and questioning everything
>anyone says about something where others stand to make money like an engine
>conversion.  All too often people take the first thing they can either
>identify with, or that makes sense to them, and incorporate it into their
>belief system on some form of faith, usually in the person that said it in a
>position of "expertise"... hence the similarity to religion that we are all
>familiar with. It's not ideal, but it's reality. There is quite a bit of
>material and concepts to cover, and if someone hears something from someone
>they already consider in a position of expertise, they will usually believe
>it instead of committing to all the extra work that would be required
>outside of their normal amount of evaluation work to satisfy a given
>question in *their* area of expertise.  SO that's where the value of the
>list lies. The things that people say on the list are not JUST considered by
>a single person's own internal evaluation, but those of many people.
>Sometimes this leads to a real mess, but it can protect the "airwaves" from
>pollution as well, because if something is said, chances are better with the
>group that someone else will know something on the matter and protest if
>they feel something is incorrect. I like that. Combined expertise and
>opinion available at your finger tips is awesome.
>
>
>Jim Akiba
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: benoit [mailto:huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA]
>Sent: 2007-06-23 9:28 AM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Timing Chains, Belts, Gears, etc
>
>Interesting post.
>
>One thing got me this morning, 80-90% of you guys are driving a vehicle
>equiped with a T-Belt.
>
>So what is the point of that thread about T-Belt and Subi????
>
>I feel that some are just trying to find a "low/bad point/reason" in
>that type of conversion?
>
>Some people (Bostig, Vanaru, Ticco) are working hard to do very good and
>reliable conversion for our aging vans...
>
>Let's applaud them!
>
>I have arguments with Jim, but it's fun, i hope he think the same, i
>almost got one of his conversion, but things went the other way because
>Hans is a friend, i'm sure the ZTEC is an amazing conversion, i can see
>all the work they have put there, i'm eager to try one one day. I also
>have some customers with VW TD and 2.0L VW engine, they loved them, they
>are mostly trouble free. So bravo to you all. There is also a guy call
>B-Bob who work hard to build reliable wasser, well, thank you Bob.
>
>Frank C. went all around Mexico last year with a B.Bob engine, again, bravo.
>
>And you know what, i have built also an engine for a 62 yo lady that
>went all around Mexico last winter (remember the radiator thread), she
>did 14,000k,  so Bravo to me!
>
>GoWesty, Van-cafe, Busdepot, Vanagain and some other sell good hard
>parts to find, so Bravo to them.
>
>There is no perfect world, but i think we are going the right way.
>
>Ben
>
>Dvdclarksn@aol.com wrote:
>
>> Yes they certainly will break. It happened to me with my 82 diesel
>> Westy. The Stooge that installed my engine (was sold as "new" but was
>> a polished junk yard relic-won't go there now) neglected to replace
>> the timing belt cover. When I asked him why he said that I really
>> didn't want that on there because  a rock could get caught inside of
>> it and break the belt?! Well just the opposite happened. A rock spun
>> up and broke the belt, bent valves and resulted in replacing the
>> entire cylinder head to the tune of $1600.00. Granted this was not
>> death by natural causes but more of a freak accident that left me
>> madder than hell anyway. I was young dumb and ignorant and learned an
>> expensive lesson. I work in the service dept. of a Honda dealership
>> and we replace most timing belts at 7 yrs. or 105, 000 miles per
>> Honda's recommendation. We usually don't see many break unless they
>> get to about 175,000 miles or more. Honda realized this and saw that
>> many people were dismissing this as Honda's attempt to generate more
>> business in the service dept. before it was really needed. What I have
>> seen now is that the timing belts on the new Honda v6 engines are
>> thinner and narrower than the ones that were used on the early 80's
>> Civics!  Maybe they are made of a stronger rubber compound or maybe
>> they will truly fail around the end of their predicted life span.
>> Timing belts will fail, not often but it does happen and when it does
>> an interference engine will require big bucks for valve replacement
>> and head work. It can be an expensive gamble.
>>
>> David Clarkson
>> 90 Westy (240k)
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> See what's free at AOL.com
>> <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503>.