I'm going to be pulling the engine on my car soon (1994 LS) with the help of a friend in order to replace the rear engine mount, and I was wanting to replace the timing belt if needed while the engine is out.

Problem is, the lazy fool that sold me the car had no papers and I've had a hard time getting a hold of the shop which performed the previous timing belt change on the car. The sticker is still on the under side of the hood with what's left of the mileage and date of the last belt change written in red marker.



I can't quite make out what it exactly says, the timing belt was done at either 100,XXX miles or 166,XXX miles. The car is approaching 190,000 at the moment and I really don't want to have to spend all the money on a timing belt, tensioner, water pump and what have you right now especially since it might not have to be done for another 30,000 or 60,000 miles. If I had a carfax account I would go and check what the records say, but I don't.
It's a shame I have to make this decision by tonight or tomorrow morning, I wish I had more time to decide. In order to get the parts in on time I have to order them by tomorrow if I want to get the work done at all before the end of this Summer, and at that point I might not even have a place to work on the car any longer.

The last time I had the valve cover off, the belt didn't seem to have any irregular or excessive wear. Does anyone have any ideas?



The other issue I have is that the upper timing cover behind the timing belt (which directly touches the block) seems to have lifted away from the block, somewhat exposing the area inside of the timing cover.



The car HAS seen very hot days and has high mileage, so my best guess is maybe the heat warped it. Does anyone else know if heat and age did this or what else could be wrong?

 

Anyone?

 

I was in a similar situation w/ the timing belt. When I bought a 94LS it has 135k miles on it and the owner had no clue about the vehicle's maintenance. When I took the valve cover off I could tell mine was the OE Honda belt and I changed that bish right away.

I look at it this way...$200~ spent now to replace the timing belt and water pump could potentially save you a very expensive rebuild in the event that it snaps in the meantime. And you should be able to get the parts at any local auto parts store today. A lot of folks will tell you only to use OE Honda parts for this job, but, in my own personal experiences I have not had any bad luck w/ the belt and water pump from Auto Zone.

 

if it's a 22t water pump then you need a gsr or typeR timing belt. if it has the 19t water pump, then you need LS timing belt. there will be a 19t or 22t stamped into the water pump gear of your b series water pump. that's the only thing you need to worry about. matching up the belt with the water pump. get one from honda, or greddy makes a decent one. set the motor at TDC and take it off. then put the new one on in the exact same spot. . .

this will help.
http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/timingbelt/tbelt.php

 

Does anyone know of a good link to changing the head gasket and timing belt? My timming belt let go when my daughter was driving down a long hill on the freway. I just assumed that there were bent valves of worse, so I grabbed another head from the wrecking yard and had it tested and resurfaced.

John

 

timing belt.

http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/timingbelt/tbelt.php

as far as putting the belt on goes, start by setting the bottom end at tdc, after the head is on put the cams at tdc. put belt on, tighten tensioner accordingly and you're done.

and follow a haynes manual for head installation. it's step torqued to 63 ft/lbs i believe and in cross pattern sequence starting from the middle working out. also the cam caps are step torqued to 20 ft/lbs following same sequential pattern as the head bolts/studs.

after that a simple adjustment on the dizzy to get ignition timing done is simply done with a timing light. clip it on #1 plug and time it using the timing marks that are on the pulley. bada bing bada boom your done..

should only take an hour or so to put the head all the way on and fire it up. just dont put the cams on backwards (180 degrees out). nothing bad'll happen except the motor will try to suck air in through the exhaust and exit the intake... ... lol. nothing too bad.