Do you guys have your guards on or off?

[Xeiros]

I've been thinking about taking off all the plastic guards on the driverside of the engine (cover for the cam sprockets, timing belt, and such) and just leaving them off so I have more ease of access to all the stuff there. The problem is I worry about the timing belt possibly being damaged over time.

Do you guys have yours on, or did you take yours off?

[Blackcrow64]

Sweet mother, why would you want it off? Leave that shit on there and protect it. You can't be adjusting that much stuff that you need to leave it off all the time... I think when you see people without it on there, its because they have done the 6 bolt swap into a 2g and the timing covers do not match up after that...

I am gonna work on a design for my setup so I can keep the timing belt cover all proper despite doing the swap.

I would never take a risk like that unless I had no choice at all...

[SilvrEclipse]

Mine is cut, When I put the cam gears on there I cut the front of the cover just enough to where I can get to the adjustment screws. But remember my cover is only 2 pieces, the front isn't 2 pieces like on the 4g63. If I wanted to adjust something I would have to take everything off like Im changing the timing belt.

[Xeiros]

Originally Posted by Blackcrow64

Sweet mother, why would you want it off? Leave that shit on there and protect it. You can't be adjusting that much stuff that you need to leave it off all the time... I think when you see people without it on there, its because they have done the 6 bolt swap into a 2g and the timing covers do not match up after that...

I am gonna work on a design for my setup so I can keep the timing belt cover all proper despite doing the swap.

I would never take a risk like that unless I had no choice at all...

See, thats what I mean. I've seen countless ones where there is no cover on at all, and it made me wonder. I don't plan on replacing the timing belt every other month or anything, but it would make it a lot easier when the time came, so that you didn't have to pull the pulleys and all that crap off to do it. I suppose if you modify the covers and cut out the holes around the pulleys you could make it so that you just have to unbolt the cover and take it off to access it (you'd still have to take the belts off though).

[Blackcrow64]

I want to have no openings whatsoever on mine... The more openings, the more oppourtunity for foreign objects to get in there...

[defiancy]

Exactly.


Those covers are there to protect your timing belt from FOD(foreign object debris) The only way those should be off is if you can't have them on there at all.

[blk_srt]

I had all of them off excepth the lower one. For one I kind of liked how it looked, I also did a few timing jobs and I just didnt like to put it all back on when I was done and I never had any problems with it. Do it at your own risk.

[Turbodog97]

Originally Posted by Blackcrow64

Sweet mother, why would you want it off? Leave that shit on there and protect it. You can't be adjusting that much stuff that you need to leave it off all the time... I think when you see people without it on there, its because they have done the 6 bolt swap into a 2g and the timing covers do not match up after that...
I am gonna work on a design for my setup so I can keep the timing belt cover all proper despite doing the swap.

I would never take a risk like that unless I had no choice at all...

Exactly what I did with mine.

[gthompson97]

I would leave them on for safety. If you really like how it looks if you have adjustables or something, there are like 5 writeups on tuners on how to make clear covers for the top, that's probably what I'll do.