papa_smurf

but you guys seem to have some of the best advice. anyway i just bought a beater car so i can retire my prelude from daily driver duty and focus more on the performance aspect. but anyway i bought this 89 accord DX for $125, it has 220,000 miles on it but the body is perfect, paint is decent too. heres the kicker, the girl that owned it before said she was driving and it just died in the middle of the road, all her mechanic relatives were telling her that the timing belt broke so i was like "ok thats cool timing belt and a few ben't valves, nothing i havn't delt with before" so i go to look at the car and i take off the valve cover and upper timing cover to see that the timing belt is still intact and on the cam gear, although it is loose. i tried to put a ratchet on the cam gear to turn it with the belt on but it doesn't wanna go anywhere so i take the belt off and rotate the cam (no bent valves ) also i can't pull the belt either way. next i get her to tap the starter to see whats going on, it sounds normal although nothing in the head moves and the timing belt doesn't do anything at all. im wondering whats up. to the best of my knowledge all i can tell is that the timing belt must have slipped off around the crankshaft gear and gotten trapped betweent he gear and the block, what do you guys think?

DSF

FYI: Just because you can rotate the cam, doesn't mean there aren't any bent valves.

papa_smurf

yea thats true but none of them were sticking in the down position and all the rockers were nice and tight up against the valves so im assuming the valves are ok, i know its not 100% but its the best i can do without taking the head off.

RGAZ

Sounds like you lost the tensioner and the crank is not pulling the belt. Its also possible the water pump gear broke and it won't keep tension. Pull the pulley and TB cover and take a look.

BTW-just because the cams turn doesn't mean the valves aren't bent. Do a leakdown if you can. Other wise a compression test can show some bent valves.

For $125, I'd pull the head, replace the bent valves and drive it until it dies.

Good deal.

Randy

speedworks

probably is an aftermarket belt and the teeth are missing around the crank gear

DSF

Well, on my friends '91 Dogde Spirit R/T the belt from one manufacturer lasted @300 miles and one from another manufacturer lasted @10,000 miles He got real good at changing his timing belt