Gates TCKWP307 Engine Timing Belt Kit

Great for the money, Chinese water pump that seems to pump water fine, temps are right where they were with OEM pump, USA Gates belt, Japanese rollers and tensioner. Belt seems a little tight but it might be me. Anyway, I have no complaints. People complain about single bearing idlers but if you replace them each time, there isn’t going to be a problem, I’ve had them go over 200,000 miles anyway. I lost an idler gear because someone didn’t replace it back when I didn’t do this stuff myself. Now I know it’s all been replaced and when.

Two things, I made a tool out of 3/8 inch bolts and spare washers and nuts and scrap lumber to take the crank pulley off. There are other ways to do it, lots and lots of ways to get it off but not as many to hold it to torque to 130 ft. pounds. But my tool costs less than $10 and it works both ways off and on. I had to remove the radiator for it to fit but honestly I was bending fins when I didn’t remove the radiator, so it’s not a bad idea to remove the radiator anyway.

I used You Tube in addition to the instructions with the kit, it helps.

My kit came with a metal water pump gasket. I didn’t use any sealant and it didn’t leak. The metal gasket is preferable. My kit came with a thermostat gasket. I bought an OEM thermostat and paid $3 for a gasket because I didn’t realize the kit came with one.

I have an auto but it comes with a gauge for the timing belt guard on the manual trans version.

It also comes with two service bulletins.

Ordered for a 2003 Subaru Outback 2.5 4 cylinder (with B as 4th digit of VIN).

Product delivered is as described, excellent packaging, and appears to be of exceptional quality. They even included a little tube of Loctite!

Hopefully I will never need to order another one, but if you’re looking for a timing belt for your Subaru, for the price you can’t go wrong with this.

I do all the car repairs for my extended family, including timing belts. I’ve generally bought Gates kits, thinking they had a good reputation. I’ve had two installations now fail (on a Miata, non-interference) and on a Focus (alas, an interference engine). Both engines ran very well for ten thousand miles or so, then quit. Both were away from home, so I’ve not been able to determine which component failed, but was just given the general “timing belt failure” diagnosis by the mechanic. My earlier jobs have easily gone 100,000 miles without issue. This kit was going into my son’s Subaru Outback. I came across, during the installation, a youtube video where someone else, who does a lot of these, complained that many of the parts in the Gates kits are now sourced from China, where originally they came from the OEM country. What raised my eyebrows in this particular situation was the tensioner. It comes with instructions, warning of warranty cancellation if you don’t compress its piston several times before installation, to make sure any air is out of it. I followed those instructions to the letter, installed it, and had the belt promptly jump two teeth as I was loosening the not-particularly-tight crank bolt to put the crank pulley back on. I then noted that I could easily push the tensioner up against its stop by hand. I put a torque wrench on the tensioner’s idler’s bolt and was able to bottom out the piston with only about 10 foot pounds of pressure. I reinstalled the original, Subaru tensioner, and read 40 foot pounds with little movement of the piston (the tensioner’s idler’s bolt started to turn at that point, so I stopped). I have no confidence in that Chinese tensioner and will not use it. In the future, I will only buy timing kits (or the separate parts, if need be) that are OEM sourced.

John

2000 Subaru Legacy Outback. Not much to say that hasn’t already been said. Great kit, price, quality and shipping!

If someone reading this is weighing just replacing the belt and not the entire kit with rollers, etc. – do your future self a favor and replace the whole kit. The bearings in my toothed idler gear froze and stopped the belt (the toothed idler gear comes in this kit). However, the crank kept spinning… The crank gear shredded the teeth of the belt around it but because the belt wasn’t spinning, the cams weren’t spinning. Bent valves, engine pulled, head job, etc. The belt didn’t break and outside of missing a bunch of teeth, looked pretty good. Thinking the previous owner may have replaced the belt and not the idlers. Not knowing any better, could see myself doing the same thing. Now I know better.

Everything fit perfectly, happy with the quality of the kit. Only problem Packaging is poor, steel water pump gasket was bent. But just bought oem gasket for $3.50 no big deal. Would recommend this kit for bang for buck

Fast shipping, good quality