Where does one find a service manual for the PP? I have a factory Bentley manual for my BMW 330i, but have not been able to find a comparable one for the PP.
You can purchase the subscription for 24 hours and print up your own at Kinkos or Staples. Unless you are a tech working day in and day out (or have money to waste) it's much cheaper to print the manual. The initial cost is about 100.00 in (25.00 for the subscription and aprox 75.00 for 25lb paper printed and spiral bound. I did mine off my MacOS . I converted the pages I needed from the subscription to temporary PDF files. It was a tedious work around but successful. Not sure if WindowsOS allows it.
Also, what sort of special tools are required to do the belt and valve adjustment etc. on the PP?
Almost all basic hand tools to do a belt replacement and valve adjustment. To make life easier I recommend getting a 19mm deep harmonic balancer socket and a
50mm Crankshaft Crank Pulley Wrench Holder Tool. These 2 tools make it much easier to not only hold the crank pulley but remove the almost always stubborn harmonic balancer bolt. Use caution when removing harmonic bolt. Very easy to snap with an impact. I almost always have to add a little heat to these when removing. When reinstalling put a dab of NeverSeez on all the bolts including water pump. It will make it easier for the next service.
For valves just a set of quality feeler gauges. I use the long Starrett or Mitutoyo tapered leaves (I have both) as these are the most accurate.
Main point, and very important after belt replacement, is to spin the engine manually very slowly at least 2 full camshaft revolutions checking pulley/cam gear marks are lined up and valves are not hitting piston.
While you are in there I also recommend replacing tensioner. If you have a shop do the work insist on it. Hydraulic tensioners are big failure point on any engine. If your tensioner fails the belt will skip and motor can end up bricked.
I find it odd that a 2002 Ford Explorer can go 250k miles w/o a valve adjustment being necessary, but a modern Honda V6 can't. Does Honda use solid lifters? Thanks for your input.
Those older Ford Explorers are amazing vehicles than can go an easy 500,000 miles. I'm pretty sure the Ford Explorers with both 4.0 and 4.6 motors have non adjustable hydraulic valve trains. They are not adjustable. The 3.5 J35Y6 in our engines have a solid design valve train, single camshaft with shaft mounted rocker arms and screw adjusters. It is a very basic and simple design.
FWIW, all you need is torque specs and clearance for these 2 jobs. No need for service manual. Doing a timing belt and valve lash is as simple as it gets. You don't even have a power steering pump in your way. If you can do an oil change then this job is just as simple albeit time consuming. If you have never done it expect about 6 hours labor. A seasoned tech can knock it out in 2 - 3 hours. It takes me about 4 hours labor but all day in garage due to lots of breaks to my old body.
