I'm borrowing a friend's garage and overhauling my sister's little 1989 mazda 323. Mostly, an incredible number of rust-related issues.

It only has 64,000 miles, and mostly hasn't been taken care of (only 64,000 miles-- what can be wrong already? plenty, from 23 years of age ).
I suspect it has the original timing belt. Actually... yeah, no one's been behind that cover.

I've only got Monday left to get any work done! And I have reinstalling the fuel tank and a couple struts left.
Do you think I can do it the timing belt, too, in let us say 2-3 hours? I've never done a timing belt before, though I've done the chain on my american V8 before (different sort of deal). This looks like as simple as a timing belt could be though , single overhead cam.
How long should I budget for?
I actually have all the parts already, so no parts store special order surprises-- I'd been planning to all along, but that was before some other surprises consumed an extra day of our work.

 

oh, and, these are non-interference, right? So no consequences if (when) it brakes, just an extra $100 for the tow fee in that event? Or could it still damage the engine?

 

Which engine do you have? The one in my 323 is non-interference. I even MADE it an interference engine once and smashed a bunch of valves, pistons came out perfect, I have a thread on that here somewhere.

 

whoops! I meant to include that.
The baseline 1.6L "B4".

Sounds good... we'll try, but if it's noon and we're not done with the brake/suspension work, we'll probably scratch the timing belt tomorrow and just drive it till it snaps (and do it then).

 

Timing belt for the first time is kind of a big job. Give yourself about 4-5 hours. And do yourself a big favor, make sure you go exactly by the book or you can mess things up.

Good luck

 

The flat rate book shows 4 1/2 hours. I did mine the first time in about 4 hours. Part of the process is done with the right front wheel removed and working from under the fender.

 

Exactly by the book? I tried that and it shows installing the tensioner first then the belt. Very difficult. Installing the belt and then the tensioner is much faster and easier. Be very careful about the belt timing.