Timing Belts For All

Timing belts are truly a new-age item. Slow advances in rubber technology prevented timing belts from being reliable enough to mass produce. It wasn’t until 1950 that the Germans used a reinforced rubber belt to operate the synchronization of the camshaft and the crankshaft. The vehicle was the German Goggomobile.
Soon after, many other European car-makers began experimenting with synchronous timing belts. Fiat and Vauxhall were among the first, followed by the General Motors Pontiac Division. The first mass produced vehicle with a timing belt to hit the American highways was the 1966 Pontiac Tempest.
The Tempest Sprint came with a straight six-cylinder overhead cam four-barrel carbureted engine that produced 206 horsepower. It was the only high-performance stock engine that had been produced since the Hudson Hornet. Mechanics scoffed at the idea of having an engine that ran by using a “big rubber band.” Others simply dismissed it as “cheap.” But, mechanic’s criticism soon faded as the idea caught on and spread to the other carmakers.
The beginning of the seventies brought timing belt equipped 4-cylinder Audi Super 90 Diesel 1.6-liter and Honda Accord 1.8-liter engines. Timing belt popularity took off by the middle of the seventies, and timing belts started showing up on just about every make of vehicle. Today, timing belts are found on everything from expensive BMW’s, Porsches, and Volvo’s to the lowly Yugo.
During this time the rubber material has become stronger, becoming reinforced with fiberglass cords and made from Highly Saturated Nitrile (HSN) rubber. The new GM 3.4 dual over-head cam V6 uses a belt made of alkylated chlorosulfonated polyethylene—a space age material with terrific low temperature performance and thermal stability. By combining a new type of glass fiber design, these belts have stronger teeth, load capacity, and offer a longer life.

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