Well, here's the story.

I bought a 1996 Prelude with stock h22a1 motor @ 87K miles.

3k miles into the purchase, the timing belt breaks, bending all my valves. I had them all replaced through NAPA Car Care with a new belt and new tensioner. I had them put on that blue greddy belt thats supposed to be uber badass.....

1,000 miles later the belt skips again. No warranty because it was an aftermarket belt.

new belt is installed.

18k miles later, 12 months....the belt is gone again.

I cant afford to have the work done at a shop this time, I need to do it myself. I have connections with some buddies of mine who do alot of domestic car stuff. So I have all the tools and a lift I need....I just need to know how.

The head doesn't have to come off, I'm assuming. Valve cover, then timing belt cover.....then I'm lost.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Also...any clues why the belt keeps going? 3 times in a year....sucks.

AIM - omfgwtfbbq19
Email - nicnsaid@gmail

or just reply to this thread.

Thanks alot

 

Buy a Helms manual from http://www.helminc.com and do it yourself.

NAPA probably fucked up the installation every time and that's why the belt kept having problems. Don't get your domestic car friend to do it either because it's a very detailed job that is nothing like any domestic.

I did mine myself and it skipped the first time, so I went in carefully and triple checked everything and it has been fine for a couple years now. Also, just use OEM Honda parts for everything, they will be fine.

 

Well the car is on jack stands, the valve cover is off, left front tire is off....got it ready to start pulling everything off the driver side of the motor tomorrow....trying to search online about where I need to set the timing at when I put it all back together....any links or help here?

 

so we finally got the damned crankshaft pulley off, after setting the TDC
pulled the tensioner off and it was fully compressed

I was under the impression those things are supposed to be elongated and spring back into place after pressure is let off

i wiggled it around and pulled it a bit, finally got it to open up. Now I can press it down and it'll spring back up...

then to my suprise...the whole damned balancer shaft belt is missing

Im not too sure what the balancer shaft is for, but do you think maybe that's the reason my **** keeps going bad?

So, after working on the car yesterday and today I've discovered:

My **** is running hella rich. Tons of carbon buildup on the plugs.

Tensioner seems to be screwy...but maybe I can re-use it now that I freed it up? lol

Balancer shaft belt was completely gone...wtf?

So....what do you think? I say...sell the piece of crap!