1993 850 Timing belt

[raynews]

My daughter's 93' 850 ( non turbo) will soon be due for a new timing belt. As many of you know, the 93's are a little odd compared to the rest of the 850/S70 years, one thing being that they have a thinner t-belt which, according to popular belief, need to be changed every 50K miles or so. My question - is it possible and economically reasonable to switch out a few parts (crank gear etc) and "upgrade" to being able to use the heavier belts that will last longer? Thanks ahead of time for your replies.

[abscate]

Her 1993 850 is special..according to Volvo

50,000 and 100,000 MILES:
TIMING BELT ('93 Models): REPLACE and LUBRICATE TENSIONER PIVOT BEARING -
Ensures proper tension is maintained.
Check for belt wear.
Replace worn belts to avoid belt failure while driving.

60,000 MILES:
FUEL FILTER: REPLACE ('93 and '94 Models)-

Every 50k for TB replacement. If the parts are 1993 specific I would stick with the 50k. If you can use later parts, then do timing belt, tensioner, idler and I think a 7 year/ 70k interval would be ok. I can't see how the 1993 model would wear them differently.

[precopster]

The centre bolt for the tensioner arm is tapped to M8 on your 1993 block and has a 14mm head.

The later 850s use an M6 thread with a torx 40 head.

The crank gear is the same with 21 teeth and the cam gears have 42 teeth on both models. The hydraulic tensioner needs to be upgraded to the 1994 one because of a larger offset. The 1994-1997 water pump's pulley also is deeper for the 23mm belt.

If you can find a way to overcome the larger bolt hole either with a threaded sleeve in the block or to drill the later tensioner arm's centre hole to the larger size on a drill press this can be achieved.

I wrote a procedure for exactly this 1993 to later timing setup conversion in the 960 Repair Database afew years ago. The 1992 and 1993 960 share the 1993 850s setup. The only drawback was that the larger bolt from the 1993 tensioner arm retrofitted on the 1994-1997 tensioner arm needed to poke out of the timing cover through a port hole I drilled.

[raynews]

Mike,

Thanks, that pretty much sums up what I wanted to know. To bad about the larger bolt hole, the other stuff doesn't seem like much of an issue. Think I'll pass and tell her to just live with a TB replacement 20K miles sooner than the older 850's. Believe me, I do plenty of repairs for her that need to be done without adding on an optional one ! This car was a score. Bought it two years ago with 52K original miles. It's a stick too! Spent it's life in a climate controlled underground garage in Manhattan - price $1700 !! What struck me most was that all the glass was clear as a bell like the day it was bought, guess it never saw much sun. Thanks again, great info.

[abscate]

Yet another member of the



Club.