Hey everyone. Well lucky me, I asked my neighbor if I could borrow her car, and instead she just gave it too me! Its a 1995 Honda Accord EX with the F22B1. Unfortunatly it does need a timing belt (it broke while she was driving it). According to her, it broke at a low RPM while driving around a corner. I have replaced a timing belt before so I know the process, however Im concerned about the possible valve damage, associated with a timing belt breaking while the engine is running.

Has anyone fixed an engine in which the timing belt had broken while in action? I would have to guess about 4 valves at the most would be bent (if at all? -most likely the 4 intake valves on either cyl. #1 &4, or # 2 &3? just a guess). Would I just need to replace the broken valves, and the timing belt, or would the valve guides be all messed up as well?

Please dont post something saying your car is F'd and your screwed. I would be willing to do an overhaul if neccesary (hell its a free car with a perfect body!), but I need some stories from people who have had a similar experience, regarding how much work is really neccesary for an engine in this condition- I already have a reliable daily driver so I dont need to replace ALL the seals, Im just looking to get it running for now, and would prefer to do the rebuild in the summer, as Im ALREADY doing the engine rebuild on my '91 lol. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

There is a chance that the valves are bent, however many people escape bent when a timing belt fails. The easiest thing to do is to replace the belt and see if it runs. You can go from there...then you can determine what else it needs.
Good luck

 

It would be prudent to not only check the valves / pistons for damage, but the camshaft retainer as well.
It's not economically feasable to just do a 'half job right now because there are things to check before you even think about putting it back on the street.
I've seen bent valves, damaged pistons and even a cracked cam retainer assembly; it is an "Interferance" engine by any measure.....
At the very least, I'd have backed off the valve adjustments and pressurized the cylinders to check for bent valves.
It's going to be far cheaper to do it completely right off the bat, rather than have to re-do prior half-measures.

P

 

P-Adams, your right about doing it right the first time. However I also dont want to do more work than neccesary at this point, but considering I have other things to do to the car first, I might just pull the head anyway and do a little upper end work.

I guess my "order of operations" at this point is to:

1) Take everything apart, and install the new timing belt.
2) Very carefully turn the engine over by hand to check for binding, if no binding present the on to #3, if binding is present the head comes off!
3) Perform a cylinder leakdown test, followed by a compression test -if it passes the leakdown test first.
4) If everything is good so far try and start it!

Like "Dirkman" posted "sometimes you luck out", so im hoping since it was at a very low rpm the engine just stopped before it chewed anything up. It was a manual so as long as the clutch was pushed in right away, the engine should have died out and stopped turning. Well I guess we'll see what happens- I'll be sure to repost later.

Anyone else had a broken timing belt to replace?

 

I had belt snap, or dry rot to pieces on me at 40 mph one day in old ef sedan.
It cost me like $43 bux and was back on the road with out checking any thing. We even used a hammer to 'machine' / chip the a/c part of the crank pulley off as had broke chunks of it off by accident using some ghetto pulley puller.

Put a belt on it and if your free car starts and runs then your free car is worth even more to you, if you start it and there is bent valves, replace them or the head. And still be less than $200 deep.

 

my cousin got a 94 VETC Accord from lady whose daughter crashed the car. the collision was minor and the damage was more cosmetic (frame was ok). i went with him to move the vehicle and initially we did a compression test and looked things over. the car was not maintained at all that i know of. i swear the plugs and air cleaner must have been original. that was 4+ years ago and he is still working on this nightmare. that lady must have seen a sucker coming along. btw, he got his car free too. i know, you cant beat a free car huh!? well, sometimes its best to walk away. my cousin will never get the money of out this car that he put into it. it still needs body work and he is considering not fixing the body any further, instead, just sell the car as is, or use it, but he has other vehicles and really does not need anymore. i call this the situation the classic "qypsy's curse!"

perhaps you will fare better than he did. btw, at the time he asked basically the same question as you did: should i go for it - and everyone he asked all said ... well, you know the answer to that. had me or my cousin knew more about Hondas, or had a shop equipped with everything you need to get the car finished quicker, i think it would have been more profitable and had a different outcome. his initial motivation was fix it quick and sell it and make some bucks, but i suppose the Honda gods were not smiling on him.

 

I would just slap a belt on it and see what happens. Its cheap and quick diagnostics. I'd be mad to pull the head off and find out it didnt need to come off and then you have to pay for a headgasket and head bolts and still have to buy the belt.

Theres a chance its ok. I sold a b16 swapped ef to someone who then boosted it and the timing belt snapped under hard acceleration and he just put a new belt on and continued to put 12 second passes down.

If it does end up having damage, you can either put a few $$$$ to fix it or you can scrap the bitch for easy cash.

 

Yea- I think im just gonna try the belt first. If the engine needs alot more work, I'll just do it anyway- I like the car, and I needed a second one. Im surprised so many people posted so far that had good luck just "throwing another belt on", and didnt have any other really major problems. I think its less of a matter of what happened, and more like how much luck you have! I'll see what happens when I get time to work on it.

Also the car has 375,000 miles on it lol. But the miles were put on really quick, because it was only driven for about6 years total. Im hoping since it put the miles on quick, and they were all hwy miles that I can get away with just the usual maintenance items. It seems alot of parts like suspension components tend to go bad over time as opposed to miles... like bushings and stuff that get all dry rotted. its just strange how good the car looks for that high of miles, and other than the engine, the underside of the car actually looked alright-better than my '91 @ 228,000.

 

Wow 300+ K miles. i have a 95 accord with somewhere between 150 --160 k, so is that considered low mileage for an accord? i thought 155k was high mileage and ready for the yards!?

 

155K miles is nothing for a properly maintained Honda!

UDPDATE!- got the new belts put on, and it fired up even with 1 1/2 year old gas in it! Idled nice and smooth and higher rpms were smooth as well. I took it for a drive and it was smooth as glass! I guess I really lucked out!

But get this- That was the ORIGINAL timing belt straight from Honda when the car was made! Im not kidding, the lady that gave it too me said she never replaced it - remember the car has 375,000 miles on it. here are some pictures of the old timing belt that broke in two places!

 

WOW! Congrats on the work. Not a bad deal you've got. Free car, all it needed was a new belt.

 

That belt gave a Honda class effort thats for sure, send it back to Honda for research, we need 400k timing belts

 

also you may want to go to youtube and watch the video on how to replace a timing belt, its a 13minute video and its awesome and easy to follow.
Good Luck

 

Pics of free car..

 

or go to the FAQ and see my writeup with pictures and instructions

 

lol did the same to a 90 accord lx all i did was pay tow to my house also all i did was replace the whole head with a brand new one on ebay for about 300