Well, Good game, good game.
The first thing I would say is that if you are fairly DIY efficient then changing the cambelt on an Ducato 2.3 is easily done. With a few provisos, one being fit the other having a good selection of tools I.e.
1/4 and 3/8 drive ratchets and sockets, you will also need a selection of torx drive and allen keys preferably sockets.The timing pins are not necessary but do make the job easier.
Axle stands are really a must or atleast some form of safely suspending the front end with the o/s front wheel removed, luckily I have Ramps/20ton bottle jack/3 axle stands and a 15 ton trolly jack ( All left over from when I sold my garage business) this allowed me to get about 2 feet hieght under the engine sump, obviously the higher you can get the front end up the easier it is to work underneath. To work on the top end I had to use a set of small steps.
Once the vehicle was jacked up and safe, remove the previously loosened o/s wheel nuts and then the wheel, the wheel by the way is bloody heavy so watch your backs. Next remove the underbody tray and o/s inner wheel arch cover this gives you fairly good access to the cam cover lower fixings etc.
The inter cooler pipe also has to come out of the way there are two nuts holding a plastic joiner, I split the top pipe from this joiner removed the two nuts and tucked them both out of the way.
Next remove the serpentine auxiliary belt and the auxiliary belt tensioner as this hides one of the cam cover fixings and will also stop the cam cover from coming off.
The next part of the game is going topsides and removing the front engine mounting, this comprises of three nuts and three bolts 18mm. ( Some people advise that the o/s head light is removed plus expansion tank and the power steering reservoir) but frankly its not necessary and is time consuming. Remove the engine cover, it has two pipe clips that need undoing and is held in place by three pushfit clips two at the front and one at the rear, tug sharply up at the front and the pull away towards the O/s for the rear fixing. I personally did not disconnect the battery as its not necessary.
Next remove all cam cover fixings starting at the top, this is where 1/4 drive comes in handy over 3/8 drive. The set bolts have retained washers on the back side so once undone from the engine they do not come out of the cover so don't continue unscrewing them once they have released from the engine. There are some cam cover fixings that are difficult to find.
The engine ofcourse should be held up by a jack underneath before removing the engine mounting.
Next part of the competition is to lower the engine on the o/s just enough to see the front pulley securing bolts there are four of them ( Do not undo the crank front end bolt, the pulley is held by the four retaining bolts NOT the crank end bolt)
Remove the pulley.
Once all cam cover bolts are free the cam cover can be pulled to the o/s and removed downwards, it can be tricky but with a little bit of juggling it will go.
So far so good. Now getting a 19mm socket turn the engine by the crank end nut till the timing marks line up on the crank pulley and the cam pulley, there are small indented lines on both pulleys that should line up if the cam pulley does not initially line up when the crank pulley is inline with its TDC line then another revolution of the crank will be necessary or till both pulleys line up with their respective marks. This is where the alignment pins are handy as once you have the crank and cam lined up the pins will hold both in place with no possibility of either moving. The crank pin hole is covered by a torx plug which has to be removed and the pin assembly screws into the engine block once the crank is in the correct position and will not go in if the crank is slightly out of position. The cam pin is literally a pin which when the cam is in correct alignment will slip through the cam sprocket and into a reciprocal hole in the head.
The use of pins is not paramount as you can mark the crank and cam pulleys with tippex or paint and dab a reciprocal spot on the head and engine block to make it easier to see, indeed when using the pins this time I noticed my tippex lines were still visible and lined up with the marks I had done 4 years ago.
Now if you intend to replace the water pump, you now have to remove the fuel pump pulley/sprocket, this is a 22mm nut undo this nut 4 or 5 turns then Release the cam belt tensioner and remove the old belt. Then remove the guide pulley/sprocket and the complete tensioner as these are going to be replaced. Remember where they come from so it makes it easy to replace them in their correct places.the fuel sprocket has to come of a 2 deg taper the way I did it was to use 3 long screws of the correct thread size, as there are three threaded holes on the sprocket, by tightening these up incrementally and putting pressure on the sprocket it should pop off, if not whilst pressure is on the sprocket just give the centre spindle a little tap with a small hammer and punch, there is bound to be a special puller for it but this trick usually works for anything held by a taper.
Don't worry about timing when putting this sprocket back on as the fuel pump is not timed its just a pressure pump and the fuel is triggered electronically.
OK so far again so good.
Now we get to work removing the water pump unit there are roughly 8 bolts holding the pump plate to the engine block. 3 holding the fuel pump which do not have washers and the rest which have two washers apiece, be aware that there is a bolt hidden in a tube like affair there is also a single 11or 10mm bolt ( Can't remember). When all the fixing bolts have been removed the pump plate can be jiggled out from the engine, water will rush out at this point, unless you intend to keep the coolant just let it flow out. The fuel pump can be a nuisance trying to get it to come out of its mounting hole, once the pump plate is removed you will see that there are two sealing "O" rings one around the pump and one around the auxiliary blanking plug. There is a grey "O" ring in the kit for the fuel pump I think but as min didn't have one when I took it off I didn't fit this one.On the new pump plate smear grease around the "O" ring groves on both pump and auxiliary plug this to hold the "O" rings in place while refitting the pump plate. In my case the engine block face had a little surface rust so I used a bit of 250 wet and dry to clean it up before replacing the pump plate. Replacing the pump plate was a bit of a trauma as the fuel pump would not slip through its mounting orifice and I spent about 20mins farting about till eventually getting it to sit back in, I used a small posi screw driver to line up the fuel pump threads with the holes in the pump plate, make sure if you have the same trouble
That the water pump "O" ring has not come out of place. Now bolt the plate back using the same bolts that came out, not forgetting to check and recheck that they are all tight.
At this point I refilled the coolant just to make sure the pump plate had sealed, if it was going to leak a 33 percent antifreeze mixture would show it up believe me.
We are now ready to refit the cam belt, firstly refit the new sprocket/guide, then the cam belt tensioner, replace the fuel pump sprocket ( To tighten the nut I used a screw driver through the sprocket and held it against a rib on the rear plate while using the 22mm spanner to tighten the nut.
The cam belt is now threaded around the crank sprocket/tensioner/sprocket guide and cam sprocket. You will notice that on the belt are directional arrows and two white lines, the arrows should be pointing to the front of the van and the white line should land on the timing mark groove on the cam and the second white line should land on the groove of the crank shaft timing mark. These lines and arrows are for reference only and are only important in so much as they prove that the cam/crank timing is correct. If you have used pins then you know it's correct in anycase and if your tippex marks are in alignment then you also know that the timing is correct, the directional arrows are only there so that when the belt is on both white marks line up with the timing marks, because the white marks are not in the same place if you reverse the belt.
If you notice at a later date that the belt is on apparently the wrong way round its not a problem but correct timing is, the belt is designed to work either way.
OK, so your struggling to make the belt fit it's too bloody short your saying, it's not it's because your trying too hard take patience and make sure that the belt is not pushed fully onto the crank pulley and not pushed fully on the fuel pump pulley as this will take up too much slack and make it difficult to fit over the cam sprocket, also make sure the tensioner is fully in off position. If your going to use the white timing marks make sure the arrows are facing towards the front and the white line is matched with the timing groove on the cam sprocket and then feed the belt down past the fuel pump sprocket then down to the crankshaft sprocket, the other white mark should align with the timing mark on the crank sprocket. After a frustrating 20mins you'll find that the belt is actually it seems too long so now we have to adjust the tensioner so that there is considerable tension on the belt I.e. over tensioned, nip the tensioner up get you 19mm socket and ratchet remove any pins that you've used to lock crank and cam and turn the engine over by hand at least 4 times if you have the timing correct you will meet no resistance other than compression, if you've got it wrong then the engine will lock up at close to the top dead centre mark on the crank sprocket or it will lock up sooner if the timing is way out. If there is no resistance then bring it round to your timing marks and re check they are correct if they are then gently release the tensioner and retention so that the v in the tensioner lines up with an indentation on the base its quite obvious, once you have done this again do a couple of rotations of the crankshaft and then recheck the tensioner that the v is inline with the dot, if not,re adjust, do this till after you've turned the crank the v lines with the dot.
When happy with the tension tighten it up securely while holding the tensioner with the 10mm allen key as it has a tendency to move while tightening it, once done just one more revolution to check the tension. Don't forget to tighten the guide sprocket too, I personally put some thread lock on both securing bolts.
Okydokey now it's time to put it all back together in reverse order, put the cam cover back first as the crank auxiliary pulley goes on after the cam cover
Putting the engine mounting back on can be a bit of a faff but gentle up and down will bring it in close enough alinement to start the bolts on the engine side and the twist on by hand initially the three nuts.
As an aside I started the engine before replacing all the plastic covers, it started up and then stalled immediately, I tried 4 or 5 times with the same result. I sat there dumbfounded what the hell!! Then I remembered I had not joined the intercooler pipe back up, once I'd done that she started up and ran beautifully
.
Well I hope that helps others that are contemplating saving circa £500 and that I haven't missed out some important detail. Good luck. Phil
P.s. I have been in the trade for over 40 years and every time I've done a cam belt I have trepidation doing it, I used to do them regularly when I had the garage I'd sometimes left the office to do a cambelt myself just to keep my hand in but in the last 20 years since I sold the garage I've only done four cambelts,Volvo V70, Matiz and the van twice. But so long as once you've fitted the belt you turn the engine over at least four times without the engine locking up the chances of hitting the valves are slight indeed it would just not run well or backfire entailing stripping it back down and rechecking the timing. This is usually more prevalent when the fuel pump is timed as well as the crank and cam.
