If you have patience, this can be DIY. Plan for the whole weekend, though (not that it will, but just plan). It will be easier to take off the passenger side motormount to bring the engine down. It's not necessary, but will help. There is a special tool to take the drive pulley off. It is definately a pain in the butt without it. Another real pain is the waterpump pulley. There are four bolts (10mm iirc) Loosening up three of the four is easy, but the fourth one (doesn't matter which one the fourth is) is a PITA. If you loosely put the third bolt back in, when you loosen the fourth, the kinetic energy transfers to the third so now the third bolt is too tight to get off. It's like a friggin 1920's comedy.
So, here you go:
1. Valve cover gasket - 9 bolts around the perimeter. 2 bolts (longer) in the middle. All are 10mm. Unplug the wire harnesses (2 of them) from the coil packs. There are two 10mm bolts per coil pack. The cylinder closest to the passenger side fender is Cylinder 1. Count to 4, so Cylinder 4 is the one closest to the driver side fender. Pull sparkplug wires 1 and 3 first, then pull the coil packs associated with them (1 & 4, and then 2 & 3). Pull the valve cover off. Pull out gasket. Place new gasket in. There are tiny "barbs" on the gasket that need to be pressed into the valve cover. You'll understand when you put it in. Also, it can only go in one way. Place valve cover upside down somewhere clean in the garage.
2. Powersteering/A.C. Belt - There is a bolt and a nut that need to be loosened before loosening the "tensioner" bolt on the powersteering. The bolt is the bolt at the very top of the powersteering that points from passenger side to driver side. It is the bolt that holds the power steering pump to the head. Do not remove it. Rather, loosen it up three or four turns. The nut is located under the powersteering pump and is pain to get to. It is the nut that "T's" against the "tensioner" bolt. Loosen it up two or three turns. Now, loosen the "tensioner" bolt until the belt can slip off. I wrote the alternator belt section first, so please read below for detailed explanation.
3. Alternator - There are two bolts that need to be loosened before you can turn the "tensioner" bolt. You need a 12mm and 14mm socket. The first bolt is underneath the intake manifold and it is in the alternator from the driver side of the car. It is at the bottom of the alternator. Do not take it out, just loosend it up three or four turns. The second bolt is actually the nut that holds the "tensioner" bolt in place. This nut "T's" with the "tensioner" bolt. Loosen it two or three turns. Now, loosen up the "tensioner" bolt. This is gonna take a good three, four minutes turning this bolt. Eventually, the atlernator belt will loosen enough to take the belt off.
4. Upper timing belt cover - There are four 10mm bolts at the four corners of the plastic timing cover. Facing the engine from the passenger fender, the top left bolt holds the dipstick in place. The bottom left just holds the timing cover. The top right and bottom right bolts hold a wireharness in place. The upper timing cover will just pop right out. It is a piece of plastic though, so be carefull.
5. Lower timing cover - This is another piece of plastic. IIRC, there are five 10mm bolts, but it could be only four again. Facing the engine from the passenger fender again, there is one bolt underneath the alternator bracket (top left corner), there is one underneath the motormount in the middle of the cover. I believe there is one more on the top right and then the bottom left and bottom right. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE COVER. The underdrive pulley will prevent you from doing so.
6. Water pump pulley - Again these are just the four bolts. Pretty simple if you can get the last one off.
7. Underdrive pulley - You need to take off the passenger front wheel. I HIGHLY recommend putting the car up on jackstands, not just a jack. The wheelwell on the passenger side is notched right where the underdrive pulley bolt is, so you can fit the socket there without having to take off the side motormount. The pain is going to be putting tension somewhere else to hold the pulley in place while you take off the bolt. The special tool would work wonders. For the P5, you can put someone in the drivers seat and have them slam on the brakes while you try to loosen this bolt. I believe the bolt is a 21mm (it may be a 22mm). You will definately need a 1/2" breaker bar. I would also recommend getting a 9" X 1/2" extension, so the breaker bar will be outside of the wheelwell. Once you get enough impulse to initially loosen this bolt, it will hand turn out. The underdrive pulley will easily just pull right off. At this point you can remove the lower timing cover.
8. Timing belt - While your under the passenger wheelwell, there is a washer kind of thing covering the timing belt. You can remove that, just so you don't lose it. Again, facing the engine from the passenger fender, there are two brass looking pulleys guiding the timing belt. The one on the left is bolted to the block "off-center". There is a hex key hole in it. Take a hex key and turn this pulley clockwise. This will add tension to the timing belt. It will also bring the tensioner spring to more of a rest. At this point, unclip the tensioner spring. After you remove the tensioner spring, immediately turn the hex-key back counterclockwise so there is no tension in the timing belt. The timing belt will come right off.
9. Water pump - In order to remove the water pump, you need to remove the right side timing pulley. I believe it is a 14mm bolt. Then, there are five 14mm (iirc, maybe 12mm) bolts that hold the water pump in place. Oh, which reminds me, DRAIN THE RADIATOR FIRST! LOL. Otherwise you're gonna get wet. It just pops right off. Be careful though, when you place the new one on, bolt it down "relatively" tightly and turn the part that connects to the waterpump pulley. Listen carefully that there is no grinding noise coming from it. If it's good, tighten them down and turn again to listen for grinding. Put the timing pulley back on. Be sure to include the washer on it.
10. Timing the engine - At this point, with the underdrive pulley still off, put the bolt back into the crank. You will notice on the crankshaft that there is a small rectangular piece of metal that keeps the timing gear and underdrive pulley always in the "right place". If you look at the timing gear (sprocket, whatever), where this rectangular piece of metal (aka "key") is on the inside of the gear, directly on the outside of it, there is a notch on this timing gear. Make sure that it is at 12 O'clock (pointing straight up). If it is not, take the breaker bar and turn the bolt (that you put back on) until this notch is at 12 o'clock. Put the new timing belt in there (loosely). Facing the engine from the passenger fender, the intake cam is on the left and the exhaust cam is on the right. If you look between cylinders 1 and 2, there is a hex shape nut built into the cam. You need a 24mm wrench (a 15/16" will work as well). You need to rotate the intake cam until the cam gear has the "I" at 3 o'clock (again, looking at the engine from the passenger fender, there is an "I" and an "E" stamped on both cam gears). Then, you need to rotate the exhaust cam so the "E" is at 9 o'clock. If you look closely at the gears, there are tiny lines on both gears. These lines need to be EXACTLY lined up with each other right where the head is. These lines are on both "faces" of the gears. You can see them from the passenger fender view AND from the driver fender view. So, now you have the crank gear notch at 12 o'clock, the intake cam's "I" at 3 o'clock and the exhaust cam's "E" at 9 o'clock. They all imaginarily (if that's a word) intersect. Put the timing belt on so the protrusions from the belt exaclty fit the crank gear. Then, go counterclockwise to the exhaust cam and make sure they fit the notches on the exhuast cam gear. On to the intake cam gear. Make sure there is no "looseness" between the cam gears. And then bring the belt back down to the left side of the crank gear. At this point, take the hex key and rotate clockwise as hard as you can. Put the new tensioner spring in and release the hex key. Take the breaker bar and rotate the crankshaft two COMPLETE revolutions. Verify that all three timing points are still aligned. "I" is lined up with "E" which are perpendicular to the notch from the crank gear. If they are still lined up, put everything back together. If not, you must take the timing belt completely off and redo this entire step. At this point, take the breaker bar and do a quick burst counterclockwise against the bolt in the crank. Hopefully, the impulse will loosen the bolt right up without turning the crankshaft at all.
If you have any other questions, feel free to pm me or put it up on this post.
