Well it happened again a couple of weeks ago, I was on the interstate driving normally when the car suddenly starts to lose power, I shut it off as quick as I could because I'd had these very same symptoms about two years earlier when my new honda stock timing belt shreaded only after 3000miles (I believe it was due to the heavy racing the previous day; however, I suffered no major damage the first time around). This time around, however, I was running a Toda timing belt which survived about 15,000 miles, and I wasn't quite as lucky as the first time in the damage department. Turns out I've completely demolished my head. All the valves are bent and a valve guide is broken. The shop currently operating on my car suggested that the head is pretty much beyond repair and that I should look to buy a used head.

Had I not had any damage to the head, I would have promptly replaced the belt and would have sold my car (I've realized its a liability, not an investment)... however, now I'm looking at a heafty repair bill as it seems now I have to replace the head, valves, and valve springs, if the retainers come off I can reuse them, however, it seems doubtful that they will, and throw the labor on top.

I've been out of the import scene now for atleast a year and a half, and here I am again, thrown right back into the mix... I'm a full time college student, and money is dwindiling.

I pretty much have three options:

1. Part the car out AS-IS, which I've been told I'd be able to sell off the empty shell, built block, and cams for a generous $3500 (HUGE LOSS), but I'd be rid of this liability.

2. Spend the money to buy a used head and get the car running and sell it for a little bit more, but still suffer a HUGE LOSS... would probably be better off parting it out than wasting time and $$$ fixing it...

3. Tough it out, spend the $$$ to get a new head along w/ P&P and change a stock honda belt every 10,000 miles, and pray to god it doesn't happen again.(Pretty Risky)...

What Would You Do?

I'll post pics soon...

I swear my car/engine is cursed: two shreaded timing belts and a hydrolock...

 

buy a used head, and replace your toda gears for stock..... (isnt that what is causing the problem in the first place?)

 

why dont you find out whats shredding the belts?

 

you should not be shreading belts. These has to be something wrong, a sharp edge on a gear, or something is bent somewhere.

 

Suck it up and buy a new head. P&P it. Why don't you just dump more money and get a beefy 85mm block, get rid of the ITR header in place of a hytech or toda and you will more than likely net over 220whp


Or sell the motor or rebuild the block to handle boost, because the snail pWns j00!

 

i would just fix the car and drive it, better than having to lose alot of money and look and spend more money for a new car.

 

By "Shreading" I mean that the inner teeth of the timing belt actually seperates from the outer band... I'm not sure how 1st Gen. Toda cam gears would be the problem... I'm pretty sure the cause of the first shred was due to the cam gears actually "slipping". The second time, however, I was told that the camgears were not the problem.

On the Toda B's (and other high lift cams) the recommended change for a timing belt drops from 60,000 miles to 10,000 miles (used to be 15k) because of the extra stress put on the timing belt due to the high lift, which requires higher maintanence.

Though one thing that always scared me a little, was the fact that my timing belt during warm-up would always "flop/wave" back and forth about an inch... After warm up it was a little less, but still moved alot...

 

Are you satisfied with your setup...All N/A?


Ever experienced boost?

A perfectly sized-turbo for a street car would have little to no lag. Ask tonythetiger---he's rockin' the disco potato (I think 10.5 compression or higher)with ITB's in a plenum.

 

Well for the money I wish I would have gotten more horsepower.. and honestly they say the reason to stay NA is for reliability... but as you see, its not too reliable. I'm not sure on the maintanece required to up-keep a turbo, but I'll tell you the truth, to me it wasn't really worth $13,000 in additional parts and labor for ~50 HP.

 

theres nothing wrong with TODA BELTS!!! ive be runnin with toda belts since last year(20k) and its never given me a problem.

TODA--itb's, 4-1, high compr. pistons, rods, and head gasket, lalalla.......

 

i agree... there has to be a reason why the belt is breaking other than the TODA setup.. but sad to hear.. that sucks.. good luck.. id keep and just suck it up..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spyderwebab &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well for the money I wish I would have gotten more horsepower.. and honestly they say the reason to stay NA is for reliability... but as you see, its not too reliable. I'm not sure on the maintanece required to up-keep a turbo, but I'll tell you the truth, to me it wasn't really worth $13,000 in additional parts and labor for ~50 HP.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Reliabilty?

Once again, not to diss---but tuning is the key with everything whether it be N/A or Boost. The more HP you extract out of your engine, the more risk there is---but that should be obvious. Unless you have a bulletproof block then the sky is the limit.

I believe it's all in the tuning.

Take it from me. Stock engine---original head and block. Custom pieced T3/04e turbo kit, 145,5xx on the clock---still able to push 260whp @6.5psi. Linear powerband. Full spool by 4500rpms.

$4000 for the parts, labor by my cousin, a friend and I.


--Hope you get your **** fixed up soon--

 

I had a belt shred on me after a few thousand miles w/ some B's. But my cam gears caused it. I had old JG gears that were soft and ate at a couple of teeth on the belt.