Procedure
- Remove the accessory belts, crank pulley, and timing covers. If the crank bolt fights you, a starter-bump with the socket braced against the frame rail breaks it loose — breaker bar clear of your body.
- Set the engine to timing position: the crank mark and all four cam marks aligned to their notches. Mark the old belt against every pulley with a paint pen before removal as a sanity reference.
- Compress the new hydraulic tensioner slowly in a vise over several minutes and pin it. Cranking it fast damages the internal seal.
- Replace the water pump and thermostat with OEM parts — aftermarket pumps and thermostats are the most common cause of post-job overheating on EJs.
- Route the new belt in the factory order, keeping tension on the non-tensioner side. Double-check every mark; the DOHC EJ has left and right cam pairs that love to slip a tooth.
- Pull the tensioner pin, rotate the crank two full revolutions by hand, and verify every mark returns home. If anything is off a tooth, reset it now — valves meet pistons on an interference EJ.
- Reassemble covers and pulleys, torque the crank bolt to spec, refill and burp the cooling system nose-up through two fan cycles.
Work at your own risk. Torque values and procedures vary by vehicle — always confirm against the factory service manual for your exact model.