It depends on what kind of car and what engine you have.
You could temporarily install a mechanical oil pressure gauge in place of the factory unit to verify the engine oil pressure.
There is no Timing Belt. It has a Timing Chain ,, inside the Engine.
1. For a 2.4 Quad you have a plunger that bolts on which gets it's pressure from the oil pump. The tensioner just needs to be reseated no bolts required it will set next to a piston type plunger and all you need to do is manualy turn the engine 2 to 3 turns and if the plunger is good the little piston should come out and put pressure on the tensioner and tighten the chain. If it does not come out assuming you have plenty of oil in your engine then you need to replace the tensioner which is around $40.00. Tensioner has a round hole in it and slides over a pin on the inside housing and if the plunger is working it will reload the tensioner. After engine restart you may hear the chain as if it is loose but the oil pressure will balance out the needed plunger pressure aganist the timing chain and will quiet down.
Once you have the front cover off the engine, examine the tensioner bar on the left side. The left tensioner operates on engine oil pressure to keep the timing chain tight, and a ratchet holds light pressure on the tensioner bar when the engine is turned off. You should be able to press the piston in by releasing the ratchet, then use a small piece of wire to hold the tensioner in place. Once the tensioner has been secured, just remove the bolts on the tensioners. I just noticed that you indicated that it's an SC1, meaning that there is only one camshaft but the instructions should be much the same
there are two tensioners, the serpentine tensioner and the timing belt tensioner. the timing belt tensioner is behind the timing belt cover ;)
The 2.2 ecotec motor has a timing chain with oil pressure tensioner and chain guides.
The timing chain is on the front of the engine. Your drive belt tensioner pulley is bolted into the timing chain housing.
not gospel but 4.0 sohc engine is an interference major damage if timing chain or timing chain tensioner breaks
with a pair of pliers
1.4 Eight valve engine. The water pump is the timing belt tensioner on this model. you need to slacken the pump and rotate it to tension the belt.
next to the timing chain you will find it in the cover on front of engine where the water pump is mounted they call it the timing chain cover you will have to remove this cover to get at it
you can't : On the '97 Twin cam engine the cam chain tensioner depends on oil pressure. I had a problem that with 200,000 miles the chain had stretched farther than the tensioner could handle and had to replace the cam chain.
use small pin to depress ball valve in bottom of tensioner. using fingers compress tensioner. this is to keep the tenioner from exerting too much pressure on the timing chain.