It eventually became clear that the belt was too tight. Because of this, the cam gears, crank gear and oil pump gear were all worn badly enough that their protective coatings were eroded. The metal teeth on the gears was also actually eroded in some places, too, resulting in a "dished" appearance where the gear tooth is no longer flat. Here you can see one of the cam gears, and the shiny surface where the protective coating has worn away:
The oil pump gear was really bad. You can clearly see that the teeth are no longer flat.
The crank gear was worn, too. Although it did not have a protective covering, you can see where the tight belt actually carved a ridge into the gear. I've circled some of the bad ones:
Here's a side-by-side comparison of two oil pump gears, both used. You can see how bad mine, on the left, was:
Another side-by-side comparison of two crank gears. Mine's on the left, and the ridges in the gear really stand out here:
I decided to use the used crank and oil pump gears I obtained since they looked OK. However, the used cam gear I got, even though they weren't dished, were also missing the required protective coating:
Since new cam gears cost over $100 each and I was trying to do this project without breaking the bank, I looked into the possibility of getting the better set of used gears recoated. Here's a before-and-after shot of the gears with a "poly-moly" coat which should last as long as, if not longer than, the OEM coating, the re-coated gear is on the right:
Another picture of the re-coated gear. These really turned out nice, and it cost a total of $15 including shipping:
