did i just destroy my engine?

[johnwc723]

well i put a new timing belt in my car and i did notice that maybe it was a little loose but then i was like naa thats probably what it was like before. i started my car and looked at the belt and it was slapping all over the place so i turned off the car. I put some marks on the belt and on the cam pulley and started it again (i thougght it may be the plastic cover was getting in the way.

i stopped it again cause it was doin wierd stuff still. i looked at th emarks i had made on the cam and now the belt and cam and moved about 120 deg. from eachother on the cam gear.... do you guys think i could have messed up my engine since it "migrated" like that (I dont know why the hell it is so loose!) i didnt hear any loud noises out of the ordinary

[shepherd79]

did you tighten the belt tensioner?
you could mess something up. it is hard to tell what you did.

[johnwc723]

yeah i did tighten it, the belt is a whole lot less tight than it was to begin with!! shit... i really hope i didnt break it!!!!!!!!!

[86LXItooFAST4me]

lol, man that sucks, are you sure you got the right belt?

[johnwc723]

yeah i match them up next to eachother and they seemed to be the same size! well tomorrow ill do the whole thing all over again and hopefully nothing seems out of the ordinary when i finally start it working! has anyone had a similar experience and DIDNT break their engine! :(

[dXsquared]

your engine is fucked...

jk.. theres no way for us to tell... if it fires up and runs smooth, no leaks and no noises.. then its fine.. the worst that can happen is new head

Travis

[Gregg86DX]

The important thing to check is the cam position relative to the crank. Double check that the cam marks are parallel to the head when the flywheel is pointing at the TDC mark. If the cam really moved 120 degrees out of sync, the car would not run at all. I had a similar loose-belt experience when I did my timing belt and I ended up having to re-tension the belt to reduce the slop.

Gregg

[TINBOAT]

John...re-align the belt...and LOOSTEN the belt tensioner, then re-tighten it...make sure the tensioner idler is firm against the belt...you WILL be okay.

[NXRacer]

good thing our motors aren't interference engines or else you would have f-ed things up, but you should be ok

[shepherd79]

good thing our motors aren't interference engines or else you would have f-ed things up, but you should be ok

what are you talking? they are interference engines. if they weren't than people wouldn't be bending valves when the timing belts are broken.

[accordlxi2.0]

ya know i got to see the inside of our engine's, i was somewhat amazed.
the piston's looked like they were set up for a 4valve's per cylinder like.
cause they had indentation's on them.

[spoon611]

yeah i did tighten it, the belt is a whole lot less tight than it was to begin with!! shit... i really hope i didnt break it!!!!!!!!!
After you loosen the tension bolt, make sure you are turning the crank pulley (pulley with the pain in the ass bolt on it) counter clockwise 3 teeth marks. This will put tension on the belt between the crank and cam pulley...not between the crank and oil pump and tensioner and crank pulley, that side should have slack. I misread the instructions on the manual and ended up turning the CAM pulley counter cw. I ended up putting tons of slack on the belt. I thought to myself, self it sure doesn't look right, but I did exactly what the book told me. LOL Once you get that belt tightened, retighten your belt tension bolt. Make sure it's nice and snug...I remember I couldn't fit my torque wrench in there so I just say nice and snug cause it's not too big of a bolt.

Anyways, just make sure the belt side that's facing the front of the engine has tension and you should be headed in the right direction. BTW, I ran my engine while the belt was loose...I didn't f up my car ;)

[johnwc723]

alright i will take it all apart again tomorrow :| I m glad it looks like i maybe didnt mess it up!! i will follow your directions to the letter, i did try to re-tighten the thing by turning the cam pulley because i didnt want to put on the crank pulley again to turn it, i WILL do that this time, thank you for everyones support

its amazing i didnt even know what a timing belt was a year ago and now im replacing one (i first opened the hood on a car only a year ago) now thanks to everyones help on this site im really learning how to fix stuff!!

[accelerator]

I can confirm that the A20 is NOT an interference engine. I had a belt break years ago, and I thought I was screwed, but my Honda mechanic buddy said re-align the crank and cam and install a new belt. I did a compression check, and all the cylinders were tight. With the new belt it ran great, like nothing ever happened. That happened at 140,000 miles, and I just swapped engines at 312,000 only because the valve seals were gone from just being old and brittle. Other than that, that motor still ran excellent. Those Honda engineers have their shit together.

[spoon611]

alright i will take it all apart again tomorrow :| I m glad it looks like i maybe didnt mess it up!! i will follow your directions to the letter, i did try to re-tighten the thing by turning the cam pulley because i didnt want to put on the crank pulley again to turn it, i WILL do that this time, thank you for everyones support

its amazing i didnt even know what a timing belt was a year ago and now im replacing one (i first opened the hood on a car only a year ago) now thanks to everyones help on this site im really learning how to fix stuff!!
yup, cool site to get help with your 3geez. This is where I got help fixing my leaks and timing belt :D.

[Michael Cote]

Make sure the bevelled washers/spacers are on properly on the lower crank timing belt pulley. The outer edge should face out. This keeps the timing belt lined up. Read up on this 3 geez site and/or manual before you tighten timing belt. Once you get things put together properly and start engine you'll know if you did damage to valves. At this point you have nothing to looze. If you messed up engine, put in a used one. Goodluck, Mike

[riced_roach]

IF your belt was really lose it could skip to the point of bending a valve. Once you tighten the tensioner and align the crank and cam position start her up and see if she runs smoothly. If she doesn't you'd better do a compression test.

While your in there you should inspect to see that cam and crank seals are not weeping cause that'll deteriorate your belt quickly.