i was driving on the highway going about 85 when the car basically shut off, no power, gas pedal did nothiing. i pulled over and checked the plugs and wires for water and they were dry. i got it towed back to where im staying. im thinking its the timing belt but im not sure yet, i didnt pull the cover on the housing yet. anyone have any preliminary ideas about it? im gonna need a head if it is the timing belt, and i know people on here have lots of parts, so anyone wants to get rid of one, let me know. im completely broke so im reaching for a solution.

 

did you try starting it again? when my buddy's timing belt went out, he kept trying to start it and it would just crank.

 

yea i did try again. i tried right away when i stopped and it cranked and thats it. i waited a bit to see if it was wet and then tried to start it again. cranked over and over but no bite.

 

same thing happened to my buddy a few weeks ago, it was his timing belt, and his valves were bent as well, alot of money later and it's running now

 

yea, the money is going to kill me. is it practical to do the work yourself? or are special tools needed? im sure i COULD do it, its just a matter of if i SHOULD. do you remember how much it cost him? and yea, now i definately need a new head.

 

chances are you messed up the head too if you broke the timing belt at 85mph but you could be lucky... if you ruind the head its gonna be spendy to fix

 

well how much is that? its gonna be my parents who are gonna take the brunt of this because i have no money and i go to a community college thats not that close to here. so i dont have much of a choice with this.

 

it will probably not cost too much now that I see you have a LS engine, its easy to find them for cheap since so many people take them off to sell when they build ls/vtecs, just find one for sale rather than rebuilding your head

 

yea thats what i was looking for actually and that was exactly what i was thinking. its just that i have like zero time to get this done and no way to get anywhere. bringing to a shop isnt out of the question at this point.

 

what kind of experience do you have with working on cars? An LS head swap is easy, just be sure to get the bolts torqued down correctly.

 

well ive done brakes, exhausts, headers, plugs wires, knuckle/hub/wheel bearing replacement, strut bars, alternators, starters. mostly basic stuff, but nothing inside the engine. so i need a torque wrench?

 

as was said , you might be lucky and not hurt anything , its possible. worse case scenario , you hurt a piston as well as valves , best case , they throw new valves in with new guides and seals , away you go. you could do this yourself. just need a valve spring compressor.