i just installed a timing belt and balancer belt in my friends '01 accord ex 4 cylinder. After installing it cyclinder 1 gets 0 compression while the other 3 get 160. I checked the marks on the cam gear and the white mark on the crank pulley and they are perfectly lined up. The car starts up but vibrates and throws a cylinder 1 misfire CEL.

would cylinder 1 get 0 compression if the balancer belt wasnt aligned properly? Please help as i am very frustrated with this car right now. I'm gonna take everything back off tomo and check to see if the balancer belt is right. I just want to make sure before i take everything apart again if that could be the cause.


thanks

 

It sounds like your off a tooth for sure.

Stick a straw in cylinder #1 and and rotate the crank pulley until the straw reaches it's apex. Then make sure your cam gears are lined up. Arrow up. Then install your belt.

 

the balance belt would not cause no compression on 1 cyl.

 

i checked the cam gear marks(arrow up) and the crankpulley mark(white dot) and they are perfectly lined up. I dont see y i'm getting 0 compression out of cylinder one now. Only thing that i could think of was the balancer belt...hmm

 

check the valve lash to see if that helps. there should be three white marks in the crank pulley. u need to line up the single white mark with the mark on the timing belt cover pointer.

 

take off your valve cover and make sure that #1 valves are closed, than use a cylnder leak detector that you can rent from your local auto parts store, just to make sure you did not bend a valve.

 

how can i tell if the valves are closed?

 

By putting a straw or socket extension in the number one cylinder hole and rotating the crank until whatever you put in there reaches it's apex. Your valves should then be closed. If they are not your valve lash may be too tight.

 

Just make sure when you go to check if the valves are closing, that it's not on the exhaust stroke. Just so you don't freak out and think they're open.

 

ok, i just took everything back apart. The valves are opening and closing. I redid the timing belt and i still get 0 in cylinder 1. I took the camshaft and gear off and tried doing a compression check like that...(so i know that all of the valves are closed). I still got 0 in cylinder 1. Does that mean that a valve may be bent or the piston may be cracked? How is this possible when timing was right on the lines when i put the belt on?

The car ran fine before i did the timing belt, but i'm possitive everything was lined up. I dont see how i could've bent a valve or y i'm getting 0 compression when i did everything accordingly.

please help, anyone

 

It sounds like you need to do a leakdown test now. If you hear air out the tail pipe you have some bent exhaust valves. Air out the TB is bent intake valves. Air out of the oil fill cap is rings/broke piston/ headgasket.

With zero comp in one cylinder I am leaning towards bent valves. If the belt was off when cranked the first time you could have whacked a couple valve right off the bat.

IM me if you need more help.

 

maybe when u had the timing belt off and turned the motor over to set it a TDC u hit the valves with the pistons therefore bend n it. did the car have stock pistons or highcompression pistons. usually the valves wont hit on stock low compression pistons but it could be a possibility. do the leakdown test to see which valve is bent.

so if u did bend a valve, u gonna pay ur boy for it?

 

i have another guy over here to look at it right now. We are about to do the leakdown test right now. If it is the valves i'm gonna take off the head and fix it. i'm gonna pay for everything it needs.

 

That's cool of you to take care of the damage. Hopefully there is none and it is something fluke

 

just did the leakdown test and cylinder exhaust valves leak bad. Put compressed air through cylinder one and air comes out the exhaust. Checked cylinder 2-4 and they are all fine...didnt lose pressure on the gauge. Gonna go buy 2 exhaust valves tomo and get the head off this week. Thanks for the help guys

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BoostedSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just did the leakdown test and cylinder exhaust valves leak bad. </TD></TR></TABLE> also when you go back to install it dont forget to install the balance shaft correctly, I think thats why you damaged the valves.

 

Might want to see if your freind wants new valve seals on all valves while you are in there - at his cost of couse. If your goign through all of the work to to take the head off you may as well replace some things.

New Head gasket also. Otherwise you will have more problems down the road.

I am glad you figured it out.

 

so i got the valves replaced. You could tell they were bent. I put the head back on the motor. I'm just curious on reasons how the valves could've been bent in the first place. Some people say the balance shaft belt was installed incorrectly, however, i was reading that some people cut the belt off to gain hp? Could it be that i set the pistons at TDC before i set the cam gear at tdc? I'm about to install the belt again today and i wanna know what to look out for this time.


thanks

 

yea, i would defintely set the cam gear at TDC 1st and also set cylinder 1 at TDC. with both set u shouldnt have a probelm with bend n more valves.

 

oh and im not 100% sure but i think u should set ur Balance shaft belt and pulley's properly. if u dont u might have some oil pressure issues. not 100% sure but just do it just to make sure

 

ok, here we go... I got the head put back on and got the timing belt put on. I did a compression test and here are the numbers as followed: cyl 1=180psi, 2=160psi, 3=80psi, 4=130psi. This is really starting to stress me out. Cylinder 1 is getting high compression now that i changed the exhaust valves out but the other cylinders are low. I checked to make sure the timing was good and it was perfect. I'm pretty confused. Before i changed out the valves on cylinder 1, cylinders 2-4 were getting 170psi. Didnt have the tool to do the leak down test so not sure yet on what the problem is. Any suggestions???

 

sounds like bent valves.. ..take it to a shop and get it checked/fixed.. and intstall it again... re do vavle lash.. and timing... and then check compression

 

great..more bent valves..

 

did u reuse that head gasket? try doing a valve lash and see what u get after that

 

it was a new head gasket and i backed out the valve lashes all the way for cylinder 3 just so i would know that the valves closed. I got 20 more psi out of it like that. I'm starting to think that its the headgasket. I dunno, i gotta do a leakdown test on it.