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I decided to change my timing belt and everything went smoothly until I got to the crank pulley bolt. I tried an electric impact wrench and heated the bolt and still was not able to get it to budge. I had a friend who offered to loosen the bolt if I could bring the car to him, so I put everything back together and tried to start the car. The car tried to start and then I heard some noise and then it would not even try to start. sounded like no compression, keep in mind that I had not removed the crank pulley bolt. Uh oh. Now I don't have an option. I finally got a 3/4 inch electric impact wrench and after a few more hours of effort, I finally got the bolt off. When I removed the crank pulley, I found the source of some of the noise. The lower timing cover had melted and parts of it had broken. Once I pulled the cover off and checked the TDC marks. The bottom pulley was off by a few teeth. The only thing that i can think of is that some of the plastic from the cover got into the teeth and caused it to slip. I went ahead and replaced the belt, tensioner, water pump crank shaft seal and put it back together. The motor just spins freely when I try to start it. Today I pulled the timing belt off and rotated the bottom pulley 360 just in case it had turned more than a few teeth....same thing. So now it appears that I need to replace some bent valves.

Anyone have any advise on replacing bent valves? Will I need to replace the head gasket? If so, do I have to get a complete head gasket kit? How many valves are likely to be bent? I am getting ready to clean the engine in preparation for removing the valve cover and head.

 
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yes you will need to replace the head gasket if you only bent them while you were trying to take it off then you probably only bent 12 if you have vtec if you don't have vtec you bent all 16. It is not really hard to do it is just time consuming.

the header and intake both have to come off in order to pull the head you have to drain the coolant cause it gets messy. once the head is off you have to pull all the valve springs and retainers off I recommend you get one of those giant C-clamp valve spring compressors they are like $15 from sears or you can rent one they work better then the other tiny one that they sell. pull the valves out put some valve grinding compound on the new valve stick in the new valve spin back and forth usaully about a min or 2 does the job of seating it pull out the valve wipe it clean and stick it back in the same hole you seated it in and put the spring back on.

Triz has a video posted up on here on how to change out your valve springs that should be helpfull. once you have all the valves done put the cam back in and the rocker arm assembly back on cam gear new head gasket and torque the head back down to spec and put everything else back together.

for me it's a late night and a six pack for some one who hasn't done it before it is probably a six to eight hour job. it is not hard just tedious and if you take it to honda they will charge you $1000 just to pull the head and if the valves need to be replace it will come out to about a grand total of $3500 or do it your self for literally the cost of new valves I say do it your self if you are mechanically inclined enough



edit: you don't need to by the whole head gasket kit just the head gasket and don't forget to rtv or honda bond just under the corners of the cam caps on the rocker arm assembly on the edges that meet the vavle cover otherwise you will leak oil

 
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Thanks.

I found this head gasket kit on ebay. Is there a reason that it is so much cheaper than the others.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA...Q5fAccessories

 
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no they do bulk so basicly everything is cheaper

 
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Should I remove the timing belt befor I remove the valve cover?

 
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the belt is going to have to come off at some point but you don't need to worry about pulling the side motor mount this time just the upper and lower cover and it is easier to pull the upper cover with the vavle cover already off

 
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Thanks. I may take some pictures of the process and post them when I'm done. I am hoping the pistons are in good shape since I was just trying to start the car and not running at high rpms.

 
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With gaskets I wouldn't take the chance, I'd get either Fel- Pro or OEM. Just my opinion though.

 
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Good info, man. I don't need to do this, but I was wondering about how hard it is. Thanks.

 
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Thanks!

the first time is the hardest and really the hard part is getting all the junk off the head so you can pull the head like intake mani header and cam. after that it is easy.

I have had to do it three times just for my car

1st did not lock tight the cam gear
2nd tensioner bolt decided to shear off in the middle of rush hour at 10 mph in the nova/dc Mixing bowl
3rd had a crank sensor go bad threw enough spark knock to unseat all the valves luckily di not bend

and a number of other times for heads I have built for other people.



Oh and I think fel-pro gaskets are the same as the ebay ones I think they are just out-sorced ones that did not get the branding but IMO OEM honda is the best out there you never have to worry about those

 
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Oh shoot! I didn't lock-tite my cam gear, I didn't know I had to, the book didn't say to (Haynes). I've already taken most of that other stuff off putting on a header, changing intake manifold gasket, and putting in new cam seal, about all I haven't done is take the head off, so if that's it it shouldn't be too bad. I'm just a perfectionist so I'm sure it would take me forever doing the actual valve-job, just 'cause I would be so careful about it.

Thanks again for the info!

P.S.- Should I take my cover back off and lock tite my cam gear?

 
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The link to the video on how to do it is in my sig, check it out.

As for the headgasket kit- I bought it before, its really legit. I have another one I can sell you- never been used, I just have it laying around extra just in case.

 
Rep Power: 275

I would take the cam gear back off and lock tight it use the blue lock tight and also if your trying to hold the cam gear still so you can tighten it it helps to take an oil filter wrench to hold the cam gear still just stick a rag in between the cam gear and the wrench and make sure that cam gear bolt is tight but don't break it off I have a friend who did that.

 
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I definitely won't break the bolt off, I torqued it to spec, just didn't use loc-tite. I probably can't take the bolt out without taking the belt off can I? It seems like the gear might want to slide off there if I do this.

 
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you can cause the shaft on the cam stick out far enough just keep an eye or a hand on it so it does not slip off it usually takes some work to get the cam gear off.

 
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Thanks, the video was very helpful. Did you get the "JIS" gasket set and did you have to replace the sparkplug seals, valve stem seals, etc.

 
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the only thing you have to replace when pulling the head is the head gasket all the rest of the gaskets/seals are reusable

 
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O.K., thanks hopefully it'll be alright until saturday when I have time to do it.

 
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O.K., thanks. Hope it makes it 'til Saturday.

 
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don't rev to high mine came off at 7000 rpm

 
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I got started last night...And I have two questions.

Question 1:

Is there an easier way to remove the intake manifold? Specifically the two nuts on the underside, and are those two the only ones that need to be removed or do all of them have to come off? The Haynes manual only says to remove those two. Should I remove the throttle body and fuel rail, or is it possible to remove the Intake Manifold as a unit?

Question 2:

Do I need to remove the Coolant Passage Housing from the head, or can I leave it on while I replace the valves?

 
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I think I may have answered my own questions with the service manual, but any advise would be appreciated.

 
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for the intake mani you undo the two bolts on the outer edges the one in the middle top put that aside so you can get to the middle lower and the 2 in betwen the middle and the out on the top the lower ones that seem impossible to get to leave those they just hold the injector plate on and you can pull it all off with out getting to the 2 hardest bolts to reach also don't forget to undo the brackets under the intake mani that atach to the block ones these are off I never put them back on they are pointless.


as for the water neck on the head you can leave that on when changing out the valves

 
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Thanks, I got it off. I bought a ratcheting 12mm wrench that made getting those nuts off much easier. Only one of the nuts on the bottom needs to be removed as well as the outside bolts, and the long nuts on the top. I will be pulling the rocker arm assembly and the head tonight.

Haynes recommends putting "Camshaft Assembly Lubricant" on the lobes of the camshaft when putting it back together. Is this some type of special lubricant, or is it just lithium grease or something similar? I am guesing it needs to be compatible with your engine oil so that it does not gunk things up later on.

 
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No, it's a special lube that is called assembly lube. I think it is usually by the Permatex sealants. It will be specifically called engine assembly lube.

 
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and you don't stick it on the cam lobes you stick in the cam journals were the cam sits that way when it starts up it does not start up dry. if need be you can use engine oil instead of assembly lube I also lube up the ends of the head bolts when re-assembling that way you get more accurate tq readings

 
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Is it really necessary to chase the cylinder head bolt holes with a tap, or is there an alternative?

 
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^no why would you ever do that there is no point to chase bolt holes with a tap unless the threads are gone and you have to heal-a-coil. taps are a dangerous thing in the wrong hands if you do not have the skill to use them you can seriously **** up a block. there is no point to chase the threads they should already be clean

 
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It did not make since to me either, that is why I asked.

Haynes says

The service manual program does not say anyting about it.

 
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I have had to use taps before on these honda blocks for other things never to clean out but to heal-a-coil and I will tell you a tap will cut through these aluminum blocks like a hot knife through butter that is why I would not use a tap to clean it out. too much risk. if the threads are dirty and need to be cleaned which they probably are not I would get so carb/brake cleaner and a pic like a dental pic