Timing belt AISIN or OEM FORD

Paid $500 to a trusted mechanic. Ordered an AISIN timing belt kit and a Bando drive belt for around $250 (including tax and shipping).

Get the Aisin (OEM supplier) Timing belt and water pump w/ hydraulic tensioner kit (TKT021) from RockAuto (good price, authentic Aisin).

I used to be a Toyota parts guy, we used aisin kits for all our timing belt jobs on all the UZ V8s, all of them are the same layout.

AISIN TKT-021 kit has everything you need for timing belt/water pump. The water pump is driven by the timing belt, so always replace it when doing the belt.

Re the timing belt, if that has not been done I would get to that immediately. At 350K km it is a ticking time bomb. Use, specify, or supply the Aisin TKH-002 timing belt kit. It is OEM quality

I’ve used dozens of the Aisin TKH002 kits- they come with koyo bearings, a decent tensioner, and a Mitsuboshi timing belt, all very similar to the oem Honda parts. I think the only major difference is the Honda water pumps are usually made by Yamada and the aisin ones are made by aisin… I can’t say I’ve ever had failures with them

Aisin timing belt kit is a few hundred bucks and very nice quality parts.

Pretty much all the newer Ford 4 and 3 cyl crap-box engines have what's called a wet belt for the timing. It's inside the engine as opposed to external like any sane normal or any moderately intelligent person would engineer.

Because of this, they require a VERY specific grade of oil, usually 0w-20 or 5w-20 full synthetic. If the wrong oil is used the belt will start to degrade and shred itself, this then starts plugging the oil pump pickup with rubber debris and starves the engine for oil. Or it just outright shreds and snaps, like yours did.

Bare in mind that this car uses a "wet belt" timing belt, where the timing belt runs inside the engine within the oil. This means that unless oil changes are carried out frequently, small parts of the belt break off and clock up the oil pickups, starving the engine and killing it.

Regardless of servicing etc, that wet belt is still deteriorating as it is soaked in the hot engine oil.