jbleakley

I have a 1997 Rover with a Honda D-series D16Y3 engine(Honda owned Rover in the1990's). The timing belt snapped at low speed recently (wife driving). I thought initially it was an electrical problem as there was no spark at the spark plugs but when I was preparing to remove the distributor I cranked the engine by hand and I realized the rotor was not turning and so I removed the rocker cover and found the broken timing belt...is the D16Y3 motor an interference or a non-interference motor...can I get away with just replacing the timing belt or do I have to remove the head and check for other damage...I do seem to be able to crank the engine by hand without resistance and there seems no obvious damage under the rocker cover.

StorminMatt

Honda engines are interference engines. So it is entirely possible that you have done some damage to the valves. But without either removing the head and examining them OR changing the timing belt, it is impossible to know. At this point, you might just try replacing the timing belt and doing a compression test. If everything checks out okay here, then you are good to go. Otherwise, you will either need to have the bent valves replaced OR replace the whole head with a known good head.