| There is absolutely no reason to start the engine to check the timing belt. The timing belt is ONLY checked by timing marks and/or counting teeth - before the engine is ever run. You look up the number of teeth between marks in the FSM. You count the teeth between each mark. If you've already rotated the crank manually, or there weren't proper marks on the belt (for some reason) then you can mark the sides of the teeth with a marker of some kind - and start counting the teeth. Either way, you're counting teeth. Once you've counted the teeth and it is right COUNT THEM AGAIN! TWICE! The timing belt isn't something that is close. It is perfect, only perfect, always perfect. Period. You certainly don't run the car to test the timing belt. You *KNOW* it's perfect before you ever consider running the vehicle. Put the vehicle back together properly, and then run it. You should never run your engine with out coolant. The answer is YES, you sure can, but I don't think running it for a FEW minutes is appropriate at all. I don't think you should ever run it with out coolant. But you absolutely can. How wise it is to run the car with no coolant (bad idea) to test a timing belt (worse idea) ... well, not a good plan IMO.
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