dabatman99

My son was on his way home yesterday, and said he was cruising at highway speed, and then the car just bogged out like it was out of gas or something. I got it towed home and did some investigation and found the timing belt was really really loose. What I found out was the spring for the tensioner had broke off!!! It seems to have bent up the intake valves and no compression...of course. I have a borescope camera that I bought off ebay a while back and looked in the spark plug holes, and you can see where the intake valves hit the pistons. I'm taking the head off to see the total damage. He's strapped for money and I am too. I have another head here that I can put on, but of course I have no idea what to expect. I'm afraid that something may have happened to the bottom end. We are going to try to find another engine asap. I was wondering of any of you other people who may have had a broken timing belt or jumped timing, and what was your success with replacing the head etc. Just want to get him back into wheels for now until we can find a decent engine. Thanks!

ezone

IMO bottom end damage from crunching valves in this engine would be quite unusual. Most are fine with just getting the bent valves replaced.


Use a HONDA tensioner pulley set (comes with the spring) even if it seems expensive.
There's far too much garbage available cheap from the aftermarket, and can cost you dearly.

dabatman99

Thanks ezone. I've seen timing belts break in the older vw diesel engines and it would stamp the entire valve into the piston and do all kinds of nasty stuff. From the looks of the damage here, it appears to have just bent the valves... I knew his car was going to be due for a timing belt this summer, but I am just amazed a cheap 2 dollar spring did this much damage and inconvenience to us. I agree, buying OEM for the tensioner and spring is not so bad.

dabatman99

I think I may have run into a snag. When installing the head, the dowel pin (bushing) that goes in between the block and the head fell out. I found it on the ground tucked away by the jack stand. So the question is if I need to take the head off and re-install it, or just try it without it? I'm not sure if that is a pressurized oil port or a return port.

mikey1

well the obvious answer would be....honda put it there for a reason, so it should be installed, how much of it have you re-assembled?

is it just the head you have installed?

your lucky it didnt fall into one of the cylinders, then you wouldn't even know!

dabatman99

I have the head torqued back on and the timing belt installed. It will just mean more re-work for me. My fault. I should have put the dowels in the block side, but since they were in the head, I really didn't think they would fall out.

mikey1

yup

ezone

I hate it when that happens. Small important pieces like that usually jump and run for the darkest, most inaccessible nook or cranny, and you can hear it laughing at you while you look for it.

dsm482

how many dowel pins are they.. mine had two in the head, when i looked at the block i saw 4 holes for dowel pins.?

ezone

only 2 dowels between head and block.

Damn, you need to keep all these different threads about one engine together.

dsm482

sorry ok... i just chimmed in.

dabatman99

I have a 2005 LX and my son has a 2005 DX. My old engine is a piece of crap that was losing compression, and my son's car had the broken spring on the tensioner that caused the belt to jump timing and bend up the valves.

ezone

The comment was not directed at you.

dabatman99

Gotcha! lol

dabatman99

Its all back together now. I was missing one of the dowel pins, but got it installed now (there are 2 now installed). Still trying to bleed out the air from the coolant system. But I think it's going to be ok! Only problem is the idle will sometimes hunt up and down a bit and set a code for the IAC. There was no issues with the IAC before, but wondering if there still maybe air entrained in the system. It also says there is and air intake leak, but I cannot find such a leak. Gonna have to fine tune over next few days, but things are looking up

ezone

Which code?
One might be for idle speed, another might be for a circuit fault.

dabatman99

I really wasn't sure what the codes were. I was just trying to reset them and hoping they would go away. LOL I'm at work now, but when I get home, I'll scan the codes again and post them.

I did pull off the filter he has on his cold air intake and put my hand on the end, and the engine bogs right down almost to a stall but still runs. Maybe I should try the old propane trick?

ezone

No.
That tells me that all the air making it idle too fast is probably not coming from an external vacuum leak. Pull the snorkel off and use your fingers to plug the open port in the throttle body, see if that brings the idle down. If so then it's an IAC related issue.

Make sure the IAC valve is plugged in and if it was plugged in then whack the body of the IAC valve with a screwdriver handle a few times. Maybe it's stuck open.
If it is just unplugged that might be all of the problem.