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They are so cheap on ebay its almost too good to believe. Would you reccommend getting one from there? Albeit the seller says its in running condition etc....

 
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Josh's sloppy hired wrenches have again made me want to do my own timing belt, I'm indecisive as ****.

That's not a bad idea, but I'd suggest just buying an old blown D15 if you want a cheap education on how to tear down (and potentially **** up) an engines internals. Unless you find a good condition D17, which would still be $500+ it's not worth keeping around for parts in my opinion.

 
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My spare engine was from this forum way back in the day.. got it for $730 shipped from Indiana to WA state. Seller said it had less than 1000 miles. Opened her up and officially believed it. The dude at the machine shop I took the head to even said, "Holy ****! Why the hell do you have a brand new-looking head off the car?"

Do it.... you know you want to... It's good experience. And it's actually really easy. When I swapped my timing belt after my mishap, it only took me 3 hours from tear down to trying to get her to fire up with everything installed.

This time took me 5-6 hours from start to finish because I started double checking everything they could have touched, kept pausing for beer and food breaks, and I even left to buy oil

 
Rep Power: 284

I think I could probably do it in a solid day.. the only thing that's worrying me is making a mistake on the timing when I go to put the belt back on. I'm thinking that if I use a paint pen to make a couple marks on each gear and on the current belt before I take it off, then transfer those marks to the new belt and line everything up then it will be hard to make a mistake on the timing.

 
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nah, it's pretty idiot proof. 2 Plastic marks on the lower timing cover (the upper one is a V shape, the other comes to a point), and line those 2 up with the white mark on the pulley.. With the cam gear, on the top of the head, there's a little.. thing.. you line up the "up" spoke with. Line all that up, put the timing belt on, then rotate it a bunch (I make it so the cam gear makes 2 rotations), set it back to TDC and see if the marks line up still. If it does, you're golden

 
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Yea timing marks are idiot proof but dont forget the timing belt is WAY easier to install with 2 people, one watching the top mark and one watching the bottom

 
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Okay, I think I got it.

So set the timing to TDC by lining up the marks on the block with the marks on the gears, slip the timing belt on, then give it a couple turns by hand and check everything to make sure it hasn't slipped.

Tom, are you saying it's better to have one person watching each gear while you put the belt on to make sure that it doesn't get thrown off TDC while you put the belt on?

For some reason I was thinking that if the I turned either gear to much with the belt off I could cause damage, even if I got everything set back correctly before I started the engine.

 
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The only way to damage the engine with the belt off is to use excessive torque with a wrench to spin the cam or crank pulley. You have to take it more than a quarter turn which is just about impossible unless your not aware of the condition Yes, its WAY easier to have someone watching both gears while installing the belt... Even with two people watching it I still have to do it three times because my crank pulley ( the one i was watching ) got thrown off I made a DIY of how to set TDC and put it on the forum here ill find it for ya one sec.

 
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https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...placement.html

 
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what does TDC stand for?

 
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top dead center.

 
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Thanks. The name is pretty self explanatory