Hey guys, I am about to drive 511 miles one way and 511 miles back, I cannot afford to blow up or mess up my D16Y8 in any way form or fashion. I recently changed the timing belt, tensioner and water pump. After doing so I suddenly notice that around 3,000-3,800 rpms it has a loud ticking sound like when you have bad gas (knock and ping). The old belt was fine I found out but it had alot of slack in it. I rechecked to make sure the teeth were not off on the new belt and everything checked out. Why is it doing this? I cannot afford to blow my motor. I set the timing at 12 degrees +/- like the Helms manual states from TDC with the red mark and the service connector jumped, it seemed to help a tiny bit but not enough to make it go away.

Could the slack in the old belt have made the timing set for it change now that it has tension? Should I do a vlave lash tune up? Anyone else had this problem around the same rpms or when accelerating? I can't afford to drive three states away and have the engine go south on me, its a healtyh engine otherwise, 80K on it, no oil smoking or burining, etc. HELP PLEASE!

 

your problem sounds exactly like you installed a timing belt off a tooth. It kind of osunds like loose change rattling when the engine's under load right. Do you have a variable timing gun? If so, you are suppose to align it on the white lines. Check on that and you will most likely see that your timing is way off, like close to 30s.

 

Helms says time 12 degrees +/- 2 degrees with the red line....but you say white? That could very well be my problem. More advice would be appreciated!

 

it depends on your timing gun. If it is an adjustable one, then you use the white line. If it is a non-adjustable timing gun, it is set at stock specs and you should line it up to the red. also, i think 12 degrees is kind of low, isnt it suppose to be around 16-17? thats what i set my car at.

 

I used an adjustable one from Advance Auto parts where I work, it was then set at 12.5 degrees and I lined up the middle red mark. All the marks are red except for the mark about 2 inches away thats white, so you say I need to line up the TDC white marke if I am using the adjustable gun?

 

yes.. your timing is way off.. i suspect its close to 30 degrees once you line it up to the white. Reason it is that way is because your timing belt is off a tooth. Its easy to misalign the tooth on a SOHC engine since there's only one cam sprocket. I've done it once, the best way of fixing it rather than redoing everything again is, i would set yr engine to TDC (white mark on the crank), take off valve cover and your cam gear, slide it off the belt and try your best to slide it back on the belt but one tooth off. If you can do that, it is a lot easier than redoing a timing belt. BTW, you should set your timing at 16-17 degrees instead. 12 degrees is kind of low.

 

So in other words, with a non adjustable light I line up the middle mark?

 

The same happened to me..

the marks are like this.....

|........|||

The 3 marks is where mine aligned upto.. the timming mark (3) is usually RED TDC(1) is white
My mechanic aligned it upto the single (TDC) one putting my belt 2 teeth out.
Also, make sure your cam pulley aligns up..


check my thread for when i had the same problem...
http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/s...24042
If your car pings like that after a belt change, its definately not right. When u try to advance/retard your timing, the distrubuter bolt should be in the middle of its path when the timing is set spot on.. if its not then your belts out like mine was.

 

btw.. all i had to do was, take off my rocker cover, remove the timing belt cover, place a jack with wood on it under the sump, remove the engine mount, jack the engine up a little, u can now get to the tensioner bolt, and fiddle around with the belt to align it properly. U can also see all the marks on the cam pulley from here (align engine to TDC and make sure its lined up as the pic above illustrates). As u would know, u would have the wheel off w/ car on jack stands also so u can turn the engine over. If the engine is at TDC and the cam pulley marks arent lining up, u need to move the belt over a tooth, then it should be ok.. make sure it isnt 2 teeth out as mine was because u will have to go through this yet again! now check your timing, if the distributer bolt is centered and the timing is spot on the mark, then the problem is solved!

 

i gotta better pic for u than that first one...


make sure those marks line up that are being pointed to when your engine is at TDC, mine was about 1cm out when it was a tooth out.

 

ok, just got through setting timing. Let it warm up (no fan kick on but choke was fully off and idling at 750 +/-). I used the adjustable light, started with the zero setting and got the red line as far as it would go towards the mark, bout 1/8th to 1/4 inch away (towards firewall) was the best it would set at. But with the light set at 15-16 degrees the white line was right on the money. Is this ok? Now to set the valve lash to make it run even better. If anyone has any more advice tell me. Also, the guy that helped me reset the timing belt tightened the crank pulley with his hands and not the torque wrench, but he put alot of pressure on the 1/2" drive socket wrench when he tightened it back up, is this sufficient or shall I jack it back up and re tighen it before I drive 1000 miles round trip?

 

16* advance is where it should be at 750rpm. also did you tension the t-belt properly? the t-belt being too tight can also cause some noises

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hatch_Back_97 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, just got through setting timing. Let it warm up (no fan kick on but choke was fully off and idling at 750 +/-). I used the adjustable light, started with the zero setting and got the red line as far as it would go towards the mark, bout 1/8th to 1/4 inch away (towards firewall) was the best it would set at. But with the light set at 15-16 degrees the white line was right on the money. Is this ok? Now to set the valve lash to make it run even better. If anyone has any more advice tell me. Also, the guy that helped me reset the timing belt tightened the crank pulley with his hands and not the torque wrench, but he put alot of pressure on the 1/2" drive socket wrench when he tightened it back up, is this sufficient or shall I jack it back up and re tighen it before I drive 1000 miles round trip?</TD></TR></TABLE>If I remember correctly the torque spec on the crank pulley is like 134 ft-lbs so as long as you have it pretty tight you should be fine. Plus/minus a few foot lbs wont hurt. Ignition timing alone probably wouldn't solve this. Do a valve lash adjustment and you should notice a difference. The link below is to the service manual pages for this procedure. Its from the UK so the engine codes will look strange but the specs and process are all the same on the d-series..

http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/C...4.pdf

Have fun an good luck!

 

I'd just do a valve adjustment, it cured my prob, ANYtime you touch timing i'd adjust valves... mine had that same clicking/tapping/knocking sound and it turned out to be a bearing on the crank, make sure it's not that, cuz i blew mine, and now i'm looking for a new block, i only had 90k on mine and it made that same noise as yours. right at 3-4k on mid to partial throttle. goodluck!