Rep Power: 0

10 months later and I'm STILL working on this! When I got back from travels last year in October, it was again rainy and cold, and I'm doing this in a driveway. Once it started to warm up in the spring, we had rain for weeks straight! Between all that and beings slammed with work, I finally got around to working on this an hour or two at a time through July.

A couple of notes, and one problem that stopped me for now.

The exhaust shield stayed on--I was able to unbolt it from the cylinder head without removing it.

That middle nut behind the intake manifold isn't too hard as long as you have your car up on jack stands, and a bright light to maneuver your way around with. I had to use a ratcheting box wrench to get the nut off, but it wasn't such a big deal--just a bit tight.

I bought a better 24 inch breaker bar that is thick, and made a five ft. cheater out of 1" galvanized pipe and an elbow (so I could clear the bumper). Weird thing about the crank pulley bolt--it did not "crack" loose, but it came loose very gradually. I thought my hex crankshaft tool was slipping, in fact. But it was the bolt turning, and it came off with no issues.

A public service announcement--don't let any old grease monkey work on your cars! When I removed the lower timing cover...let's just say, the crank pulley was holding it on. Three of the tabs for the bolts were busted off, and the crank pulley rubbed through the cover, leaving a huge pile of plastic shavings in the bottom of it. Needless to say, I ordered a new bottom cover. The rear top cover also has a flaw, but I can work around it--there is a threaded insert in one of the tabs, and it pulled through the plastic; I can fasten this with a bolt and a couple of washers. Whoever put this back together (for the 100k timing belt change) did a hack job...and I'll tell part two of this saga shortly.

This problem started when a bad Bosch spark plug shattered inside cylinder 2. Luckily when I got the head off, the cylinder was shiny, no scoring. Pistons looked fine, with the usual carbon buildup on them. I used compressed air to blow out the water jacket around the pistons, cleaned everything up, and the rebuild head is now all torqued down and ready to use.

So I'm putting the timing belt on. All lined up TDC, perfect. I do the tensioner exactly as they say in the service manual, barely tightening then backing off 180°. Got the belt on, then went to torque the tensioner to 33 ft/lb. per the manual. Ummm...it's still turning. Stripped threads. Whoever put this together overtightened it. I pulled the bolt back out, and I'm getting little spiral pieces. I'm thinking a helicoil was possibly used to fix this hole in the past. I then remembered that this bolt was somewhat easy to remove when I took the old belt off--now it makes sense.

And that's where I'm stuck at. I leave in a few days, so this won't be restarted until mid August when I'm back home. I could probably get a new helicoil in there, BUT...how do I get to the hole? Is there a way to safely drop the engine far enough to get a drill in there (maybe loosening some of the engine mounts)? Or if a helicoil was used in the past, can I possibly just chase the larger threads with a tap (the size needed for a helicoil, and insert a new helicoil? (I can just fit a tap and tap handle in there. I just have to find the right tap, unless all helicoils use the same outside thread size and pitch.)

I've read of others using a helicoil on the tensioner with good results, so I have a feeling it should work. But I just need access to it. Any ideas? This can't be the first time this has happened. (In fact, someone on Amazon was reviewing a helicoil kit for the tensioner on a 2003 Civic, so I know it can be done somehow.)

 
Rep Power: 119

Those little spirals are the remains of the threads that were supposed to stay in your engine block..

Whatever you put in should be exactly straight and centered and that’s very hard to do without pulling the engine out and taking to a machine shop.

Other wise your using a hole saw to gain access through the wheel well and then hoping you get “lucky”.

 
Rep Power: 0

I've looked into this more. A Time Sert seems to be the way to go, as it uses a tap handle for the drill, countersink and tap. They sell an accessory that is a thick collar you can hold against your surface (they call it a "tap guide") to keep the bits square. Those should have plenty of clearance, although I may need to remove the water pump and cam pulley so I have room to rotate the tap handle. I may need the Big Sert option as those are used where previous "repairs" were attempted.