DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for anything you do to your car, etc etc.
This is a how-to describing the process that InfantryMP and I made while changing his timing chain. I would highly recommend you obtain a copy of the service manual. This guide should not serve as a substitute to the service manual.
A few notes: We did not remove the oil pan. We did not have an engine hoist. Just a block of wood and another floor jack.
Without further adieu:
Remove upper strut bar. Replace nuts on strut to avoid the suspension falling out when you raise the car. This is optional. We didn't remove it and had no trouble, but it will make your life slightly easier.
Raise the car up on jack stands.
Remove passenger front wheel.
Remove plastic skid trays and passenger front fender liner.
Drain the oil.
Remove upper intercooler pipe. Stuff rags in both the turbo outlet and intercooler (just to be safe). For some UICPs, this requires removing the bumper.
Remove coils/spark plug boots. Unclip wiring harnesses on valve cover and move out of way.
Remove spark plugs.
Remove valve cover.
This is where we rotated the crankshaft using the 22mm socket to line up the timing marks on the camshaft cogs to the chain. It looks like our chain skipped a tooth.
Exhaust cam looks good:
Intake cam is off:
Drink a little beer.
Remove the coolant reservoir. Unclip the wires, and remove the bracket holding the heat sink on.
Remove the bolt holding the power steering lines in place.
Loosen (but do not remove) the bolts on the water pump pulley. It's much easier with the serpentine belt still attached.
Loosen the tension and remove the serpentine belt.
Remove the 3 bolts holding the power steering oil pump on. Pry the pump out of the bracket and set off to the side.
Remove the top bolt on the alternator, and loosen the bottom nut. The bottom nut is on the left side of car (right side as your looking at it). It's hard to see but easy to feel your way around to. This will allow the alternator to pivot forward; move it as far forward as possible.
Now we need to remove the engine mount. Place a piece of 2x6 under the oil pan and jack up the engine just enough to take the pressure off the mount. Make sure the piece of wood does not extend under the timing chain cover as this will make things much harder later… trust me.
Remove the bolts holding the mount to the chassis, and then remove the nuts/bolt on the engine side. We did not remove the long center bolt holding the two parts of the mount together. Slide the mount off.
Remove the engine mount bracket that is attached to the timing chain cover.
Remove the water pump pulley… you already loosed those bolts, right? You may have to raise/lower the engine just a bit to get it out.
Remove the idler pulleys.
Remove the auto tensioner pulley. (16mm, reverse thread!) Now remove the auto tensioner itself.
Now we need to remove the crank pulley. It's a 22mm bolt, but it's on tight. Try to loosen it with an impact wrench. Ours didn’t have enough torque to remove it so we had to improvise. We put a breaker bar on the crank pulley and rested the bar against the suspension. With our fingers crossed we cranked the starter (very short pulse) until it broke the bolt free. I wouldn't recommend this, but it did work like a charm. Once the bolt is out, lower the engine just enough to clear the pulley from the chassis and set the pulley aside. We will need it later for alignment.
Remove all the bolts on the timing chain cover. Some are 12mm and some are 10mm. Don't forget the 10mm bolts coming up through the oil pan into the timing chain cover. The one on the right (front of engine) doesn't come all the way out unless you intend the remove the bracket under the A/C pump. We simply loosened it and fully took it off once the cover was free. You'll see what I mean.
The cover will need to be pried off. Start with a flat-head screwdriver and pry the boss.
It will probably need some more help, so grab a wooden hammer and stick that down the timing chain area and pry.
Once that's loose, remove through the bottom of the car and set aside.
Drink a beer; you deserve it. You're doing great!
OK. Let's get the engine and cams in roughly the correct position before proceeding. Put that crank pulley back on and thread the bolt in it. No need to tighten it, we are just using it to rotate the engine. Rotate clockwise until the crankshaft timing mark (the protruding thing on the shaft) is at the 9 o'clock position, and the timing marks on the cam gears face each other, level with the head (9 and 3 position for the exhaust and intake cam, respectively). See picture. This should ensure that cylinder 1 is at TDC. We stuck a long skinny screwdriver down each spark plug hole just to double-check our work. If you did it correctly, cylinders 1 and 4 should be at the top of the block
Remove the crank pulley again, taking care not rotate the engine. Impact guns work wonders here, even though that bolt shouldn't be too tight.
Now we need to compress the chain tensioner. There are two holes on it. The hole on the right contains the ratcheting mechanism. Insert a small flat tipped screwdriver in there to separate the top teeth from the bottom. Squeeze the piston back in, and insert a small allen wrench into the left hole. This will hold the piston in place. Remove the tensioner.
Remove the upper chain guide.
Remove the chain. Drink some more beer. InfantryMP looks like he needs a beer, am I right?
Confirm that the crankshaft and camshafts are in the same position. Refer to this:
Install the new chain. You need to ensure that the colored links on the chain match up perfectly with paint marks on the gears. Triple-check your work here; this is super important.
Re-install the chain tensioner. Pull the allen wrench if you are reusing the old one, or pull the grenade pin on the new one.
Install the upper chain guide.
Temporarily re-install the crank pulley again. Rotate the engine (clockwise) about 20 times, watching for anything wrong. Eventually, the colored chain links will line back up on the gear markings. If so, you are done with this part. Drink beer, relax, the hard part is over.
Find your timing chain cover, and clean up all that old gasket nonsense on it. Apply some high temp RTV around all edges and re-install on to car. Start with that 10mm bolt by the A/C pump if you didn't remove that bracket earlier.
Re-install everything else you removed. Tighten the crank pulley after you have the serpentine belt installed. It sucks to do, but follow the factory specifications.
184 ft-lb → 0 → 81 ft-lb → Then tighten a further 60 degrees.
Yes, I'm serious… that's what it says.
With everything installed, start the car up and let it idle for a few minutes, checking for any leaks.
Finish that beer.
For reference, this is the new chain:
This is a how-to describing the process that InfantryMP and I made while changing his timing chain. I would highly recommend you obtain a copy of the service manual. This guide should not serve as a substitute to the service manual.
A few notes: We did not remove the oil pan. We did not have an engine hoist. Just a block of wood and another floor jack.
Without further adieu:
Remove upper strut bar. Replace nuts on strut to avoid the suspension falling out when you raise the car. This is optional. We didn't remove it and had no trouble, but it will make your life slightly easier.
Raise the car up on jack stands.
Remove passenger front wheel.
Remove plastic skid trays and passenger front fender liner.
Drain the oil.
Remove upper intercooler pipe. Stuff rags in both the turbo outlet and intercooler (just to be safe). For some UICPs, this requires removing the bumper.
Remove coils/spark plug boots. Unclip wiring harnesses on valve cover and move out of way.
Remove spark plugs.
Remove valve cover.
This is where we rotated the crankshaft using the 22mm socket to line up the timing marks on the camshaft cogs to the chain. It looks like our chain skipped a tooth.
Exhaust cam looks good:
Intake cam is off:
Drink a little beer.
Remove the coolant reservoir. Unclip the wires, and remove the bracket holding the heat sink on.
Remove the bolt holding the power steering lines in place.
Loosen (but do not remove) the bolts on the water pump pulley. It's much easier with the serpentine belt still attached.
Loosen the tension and remove the serpentine belt.
Remove the 3 bolts holding the power steering oil pump on. Pry the pump out of the bracket and set off to the side.
Remove the top bolt on the alternator, and loosen the bottom nut. The bottom nut is on the left side of car (right side as your looking at it). It's hard to see but easy to feel your way around to. This will allow the alternator to pivot forward; move it as far forward as possible.
Now we need to remove the engine mount. Place a piece of 2x6 under the oil pan and jack up the engine just enough to take the pressure off the mount. Make sure the piece of wood does not extend under the timing chain cover as this will make things much harder later… trust me.
Remove the bolts holding the mount to the chassis, and then remove the nuts/bolt on the engine side. We did not remove the long center bolt holding the two parts of the mount together. Slide the mount off.
Remove the engine mount bracket that is attached to the timing chain cover.
Remove the water pump pulley… you already loosed those bolts, right? You may have to raise/lower the engine just a bit to get it out.
Remove the idler pulleys.
Remove the auto tensioner pulley. (16mm, reverse thread!) Now remove the auto tensioner itself.
Now we need to remove the crank pulley. It's a 22mm bolt, but it's on tight. Try to loosen it with an impact wrench. Ours didn’t have enough torque to remove it so we had to improvise. We put a breaker bar on the crank pulley and rested the bar against the suspension. With our fingers crossed we cranked the starter (very short pulse) until it broke the bolt free. I wouldn't recommend this, but it did work like a charm. Once the bolt is out, lower the engine just enough to clear the pulley from the chassis and set the pulley aside. We will need it later for alignment.
Remove all the bolts on the timing chain cover. Some are 12mm and some are 10mm. Don't forget the 10mm bolts coming up through the oil pan into the timing chain cover. The one on the right (front of engine) doesn't come all the way out unless you intend the remove the bracket under the A/C pump. We simply loosened it and fully took it off once the cover was free. You'll see what I mean.
The cover will need to be pried off. Start with a flat-head screwdriver and pry the boss.
It will probably need some more help, so grab a wooden hammer and stick that down the timing chain area and pry.
Once that's loose, remove through the bottom of the car and set aside.
Drink a beer; you deserve it. You're doing great!
OK. Let's get the engine and cams in roughly the correct position before proceeding. Put that crank pulley back on and thread the bolt in it. No need to tighten it, we are just using it to rotate the engine. Rotate clockwise until the crankshaft timing mark (the protruding thing on the shaft) is at the 9 o'clock position, and the timing marks on the cam gears face each other, level with the head (9 and 3 position for the exhaust and intake cam, respectively). See picture. This should ensure that cylinder 1 is at TDC. We stuck a long skinny screwdriver down each spark plug hole just to double-check our work. If you did it correctly, cylinders 1 and 4 should be at the top of the block
Remove the crank pulley again, taking care not rotate the engine. Impact guns work wonders here, even though that bolt shouldn't be too tight.
Now we need to compress the chain tensioner. There are two holes on it. The hole on the right contains the ratcheting mechanism. Insert a small flat tipped screwdriver in there to separate the top teeth from the bottom. Squeeze the piston back in, and insert a small allen wrench into the left hole. This will hold the piston in place. Remove the tensioner.
Remove the upper chain guide.
Remove the chain. Drink some more beer. InfantryMP looks like he needs a beer, am I right?
Confirm that the crankshaft and camshafts are in the same position. Refer to this:
Install the new chain. You need to ensure that the colored links on the chain match up perfectly with paint marks on the gears. Triple-check your work here; this is super important.
Re-install the chain tensioner. Pull the allen wrench if you are reusing the old one, or pull the grenade pin on the new one.
Install the upper chain guide.
Temporarily re-install the crank pulley again. Rotate the engine (clockwise) about 20 times, watching for anything wrong. Eventually, the colored chain links will line back up on the gear markings. If so, you are done with this part. Drink beer, relax, the hard part is over.
Find your timing chain cover, and clean up all that old gasket nonsense on it. Apply some high temp RTV around all edges and re-install on to car. Start with that 10mm bolt by the A/C pump if you didn't remove that bracket earlier.
Re-install everything else you removed. Tighten the crank pulley after you have the serpentine belt installed. It sucks to do, but follow the factory specifications.
184 ft-lb → 0 → 81 ft-lb → Then tighten a further 60 degrees.
Yes, I'm serious… that's what it says.
With everything installed, start the car up and let it idle for a few minutes, checking for any leaks.
Finish that beer.
For reference, this is the new chain:
