Hi everyone, my girlfriend has a 2001 acura integra ls without VTEC, it is all stock and she broke her timing belt. I am a Toyota master tech so I'm going to replace the belt, but on Acuras like this, do the valves hit the pistons when the belt breaks? Most Toyotas do not hit, you can break belts all day and just replace them and the car runs great. But some Hondas hit valves to pistons, so what about this car? Do they hit? I will find out anyways after replacing the belt by a compression test, but I want to give her peace of mind if I can

 

I would say "most likely" but I guess it depends on the situation such as idle or high revs, yes if you set timing right-after you install a new belt-do a compression test and simply rotate the crank by hand a few times to listen, I would make sure before you try to start it so that you dont cause more damage if you have a bent valve. I have never had this problem and hope it never happens. If you don't get compression then its most likely a bent valve or a valve not seating right...Hope this helps

 

yes, hondas are "interference engines", meaning pistons and valves occupy the same space at certain points in the rotation, bending valves when mechanical timing is off too much

 

its probably f'd, cheaper and less headaches to just get another b18

 

yes this is an interference motor

 

i'm pretty sure the ls motor isn't an inteference motor. i've heard of people snapping their timing belts and the motor being fine with a new belt.

 

I'm pretty sure you are wrong about this, those people likely got lucky, although your odds are slightly better due to the lower compression pistons of the LS vs. any of the vtec b-series motors. All b-series engines are interference motors.

 

Sorry to the OP but I don't think the odds look to promising...

 

 

$5 says 8 bent exhaust valves!

 

Yeah sometimes you get lucky. When her car broke down, did she try starting it again?

 

Its a craps shoot.

 

they are an interference engine, its all a chance if it bent/broke anything

it could have not done anything , it could have bent a couple valves, it could have destroyed whole motor, good thing they are the cheapest b series and its not expensive even if you have to replace the whole long block

 

OK people, davidstarsky 66 here. I am the author of this post, and I thank you for your help. I have replaced the timing belt on the car and I have found out a couple of things. First of all, it definitely is an interference engine. Here is how I verified that it was: I had set the crankshaft to TDC by lining up the marks on the oil pump housing with the drive cog which slips on to the end of the crank, and then I rotated one of the camshaft sprockets to line it up and it rotated maybe a 1/4 turn then I felt it stop like it was hitting something solid. I of course suspected it was valve to piston, so what I did was rotated the crankshaft a little bit to move the piston down in it's bore. Then the camshaft rotated the rest of the way to the proper position. Had to do the same for the other cam sprocket. So that tells me (just like most of you guys did here) that it definitely falls under the category of interference engine. Second thing I learned was that just because it is does not guarantee that the engine will be ruined. The car runs fine now and I put about 75 miles on it after the repair. It was a lucky thing that when the belt broke, the throttle was barely opened and the rpm's were real low, like 1500 rpm. If it was revved up higher, it may have bent the valves and who knows what else. But I was lucky. Everything is fine now. Thanks again.

 

You can IM me for my address to send the five dollars. Thanks.

 

I paid 35 bucks for a timing belt and put it in within 3 hours, and that was taking my time. So I doubt that anyone could swap an engine in this car in 3 hours and pay 35 bucks for it.

 

Good stuff, a lot of people tend to just assume the motor is F'd

 

That is great news! bent valves suck i had that happen on the freeway! did you adjust the valve lash? and replace the water and oil pump?, for this is a good thing to replace while doing the routine timing belt change.

 

I'll take this bet too. Hell I'll raise it to $5000.


To bend the valves, a cylinder would have to be at maximum valve lift when the belt broke. The realistic worst scenario is two bent exhaust and two bent intake valves in different cylinders. Exhaust valves typically bend during an over-rev.

 

Well thats great news. I would say the low rpm is most likely what saved this engine...but congrats on the simple and inexpensive, but time consuming repair...

 

Glad it worked out for you. And I'm glad to see how this thread proves that there are members who just spout off info not knowing if it's correct or not. If you don't know what your talking about, don't say anything kids.

 

Are the interference ishues the same for a 91 ls?

John

 

Yes.

 

I did not replace the water pump. I was surprised that the tensioner was in such good shape. I did not replace anything except the timing belt because nothing else was bad. I understand the theory behing throwing a water pump in so you won't have to remove the timing belt again to replace the pump, but I am an auto mechanic and labor cost to me is only my time. So if the water pump goes bad next week or whenever, I will replace it. No big deal. OH and as per your quote-replace the oil pump? Why? That makes no sense. Maybe the cam and or crank seals, but the oil pump I have never heard of replacing that unless it is bad.

 

Good to hear it came out good.