Its late, I am tired and I have been drinking. That’s my disclosure for this thread.

Today I was working on my 4th gen prelude, doing the timing belt, auto to manual tensioner conversion and changing the water pump. Everything was going real smooth. Although I will say all this would be A LOT easier if the engine was out of the car, but never mind that fact. I was installing the new water pump, and one of the bolts snapped on me. (Yea yea go ahead and flame me for not using a torque wrench) So anyway, I was thinking maybe it will not leak on me. Then I came to the realization that now is the time to fix it. Not after I put the car back together and have to tear it back apart. So I guess tomorrow I will be pulling the engine, or at best lifting the engine up so I can see the bolt that is broken.

Should I go ahead and replace the oil pump?

Any suggestions… on anything? (Besides using a torque wrench next time)




Modified by cifer6425 at 3:28 AM 1/6/2006

 

You don't need to remove the engine to remove the broken bolt, however, lifting it may help.

Which bolt out of the 5 broke off though? Just remove the pump and all the other stuff in the way and get a stud extractor. If you are lucky, you may be able to use vice grips on the stud if any of it is protruding from the actual block.

 

Viewing the engine from drivers side (as working on it), the top left bolt broke.
I will see what i can do today with it.

 

that sucks man. hopefully youll get lucky and be able to do the visegrip thing.

 

So today was spent removing the broken bolt. I removed axles, front and rear engine mounts (driver’s side was already removed) and lifter the engine up. There was just enough, and I do mean just barely enough, of the broken bolt to grip with some vise grips. It was a slow process of working the piece out. The rest of the day was spent dropping the engine back into place and re-installing axles. As of right now, I am about where I was Tuesday afternoon, before the bolt snapped.

 

Well today I got the timing belt on. The first time, the timing was not in time. Take it off and start over. The second time, I forgot to install a part. Yep, take it off start over. The third time, I was trying to torque down the crank pulley bolt (181 ft/lbs), and the engine was turning over. So I block one of the cam gears off and went back to torqing. Apparently the proper way to do it is to block both cam gears from turning. Because around 150ish fl/lbs the timing belt started jumping teeth. Because one was able to turn, and I don’t really know why, I just know it did. Tomorrow, by george, it will run, or else I am calling a mechanic.

The only good thing about this is am getting really good at setting time.

any suggestions on keeping the camshaft pulleys from turning?

 

You can keep the cams from rotating by using a 5mm round punch. But I don't suggest doing this. Those small punch's are not enough to counter the 181ft lbs.

Get a 1/2" Impact gun and use that to torque it. If you don't have one, snug it and drive it to a local shop so they can hit it. The proper way however is to use a crank tool to stop the crank from moving.

 

Thanks,
That's what I was going to do today use an air gun to snug it down. Maybe even put some locktite on the bolt as well.

 

Well I finished my project. New timing belt, new water pump, intsalled UR pulleys and learned a lot.

 

ya i NEVER use the transmission and brakes to hold the motor from turning