should there be any slack on the timing belt towards the back side of the motor.

 

not really, the slack should be removed by the tensioner as the motor is cranked very slowly manually. i still have an auto tensioner so i'm sure its a little more difficult on a manual tensioner. get out as much slack as you can and then tighten the tensioner up.

 

well i have an auto as well. but i had one that came with my new motor and then my old one that was at like 100k

im thinking i may have put the old one back in cause there is like a little movement on the back end, no biggie i still got the Timing cover off lol.

 

i would suggest buying a new one from honda. they are rumored to break all the time. when i changed my timing belt, a tech at honda told me that the auto tensioner was redesigned so it wouldn't have the same problems the old ones (i think the new design was installed on 99+ preludes IIRC).

 

I believe the general consensus here is to scrap the h22 auto tensioner and switch to the H23 manual belt tensioner, as the auto ones tend to be problematic.

Here's a thread that gives you a step by step walk through for the conversion:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=549516

 

ya im giong to the h23 tensioner but im wanting to wait to pull my motor when i do my headwork, clutch, tranny, and some other stuff.

i just dont want this crap to get loose on me lol it dosnt take like 2 minutes to change it