Hi guys, I'm obviously a nube, not used to working on these little Hondas. I have a 1999 DX hatch with the D16Y7. I have been checking around, have the Chilton and am a quick study. We've had it since January and I'm just starting to get into it to try and keep it going as long as possible.

A few days ago I checked the timing, in the prescribed manner. I found it was way advanced, a good 10-15° ahead of the red timing marks, which would make the base timing 22-30° BTDC.

I adjusted the distributor all the way forward and I'm still at least 5° ahead of the red marks. Does this mean my belt has jumped a tooth? This to me seems to be the only logical explanation but since I'm not familiar with these cars I thought I'd ask.

Down time and money are a bit of an issue since I'm dealing with a 2 car 3 driver situation and a non traditional work schedule (3-12 hr. weekends). So if there is something not as complicated as pulling the valve & timing belt covers that I could check or adjust before I know I need to go this route. Frankly, if I have to pull the valve covers and most likely have to change the belt I might as well pull the head and replace the head gasket.

 

it's not really even possible to get that much timing advance out of the oem slots.

if the timing belt jumped a tooth, the car would run extremely weird. was the car at a hot idle and the service connector jumped?

i'm not sure how checking timing somehow translates into replacing a head gasket for no reason. pulling the valve cover only requires removing a few bolts. it's a transverse 4 cylinder. not that hard.

 

Checked in the prescribed manner, hot and service plug jumped. It was very sluggish at low rev and was pinging under load.

I only have "convenient" access to work on this car a few hrs during the evenings a couple days a week. It can't be down for long since my kid takes it to school during the week and I take it to work on the weekends and after a 12 hr shift I'm not in any mood to start pulling things apart knowing it has to be ready to go in the wee hrs of the morning.

The head gasket is both a "since I'm here" thing and I'm also burning oil and losing coolant somewhere. Naturally, I would also replace the water pump if a belt change were in order.

 

Any other thoughts?