Timing belt question on lower mileage NSXs

official it's thoroughly inspect pump assembly and replace gasket,
Practically speaking REPLACE it as you'd not want a shaft seal leak to occur after a 3 months. (and yes I've seen that happen before)

That being said the shaft and it's bearings set to the tension and wear of both timing belt and tensioner, the load will change over the life of belt and bearings.
Now the new belt and tensioner will have slightly different pressure build up because they are new and tight this offset can cause wear on seals and bearings in the pump.

We have refurbished pumps with new wear parts installed (new bearings new seals, etc) as the aluminum casting it self doesn't really deteriorate.

On low millage cars with over due belt's i always recommend replacement ASAP whilst your doing that check your cam and cranks seals AND timing belt pulley.
These can all dry out and deteriorate over time, long periods of sitting around and not being used isn't helpful for condition of wear items on a engine.

Off-course also remember to replace brake and clutch fluids as well if this hasn't been done. (also check rubber brake & clutch flex lines, and coolant hoses!)
These generally fail at the worst possible time.

I my self have recently bought one that has been in storage for 3-4 years the previous had done roughly 6500 miles annually before putting it away in a corner.
Very nice condition indeed but it does come with it's drawbacks you need to do a fair amount of replacement as bushings and flexible parts don't like sitting in a corner for years.

Right away I replace shocks, brake lines, brake calipers, did a service and tune up, still have to find time for the AC and off course WP/TB but will be doing that ASAP.
So factor in those costs prior to purchasing the car, we had a customer in last week that bought a low millage garaged NSX after a pressure test on the AC, it ended up needing new AC piping, compressor & drier.
 
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official it's thoroughly inspect pump assembly and replace gasket,
Practically speaking REPLACE it as you'd not want a shaft seal leak to occur after a 3 months. (and yes I've seen that happen before)
That's correct. Also practically speaking, you replace the water pump when you replace the timing belt because it's all the same extensive labor. If you don't replace the water pump when you're doing the timing belt, you risk having to do all that labor all over again if the water pump fails. So it makes sense to replace it while you're in there anyway.
 
How do you check a "New" timing belt for its age (when it was produced)? Someone stated the shelf life of rubber is 7years so it would be counter productive to replace your Timing belt if the new one you're about to put in is old too. Reason this concerns me is NA1/NA2 NSXs are discontinued now and has been for 8 years so is Honda constantly replenishing their inventory with "fresh" parts when it comes to belts or are they giving you belts from the 90s and early 2000s still?
 
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I have not read any publication indicating that, shelf life of the rubber timing belt is 7 years . Rather it is the environment that the timing belt works in the engine that cause the rubber to brakedown and will eventually fail. In other words it's the heat/moisture/cooling cycles that cause the rubber belt to deteriorate.

So, sitting on a shelf in a sealed plastic bag, should have little effect on the rubber belt.

Bram
 
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