Hey guys and girls, I'm new to hondatech. I signed up just to post this!

I picked up this '89 Civic hatchback, the base model with DPFI, one side mirror and no tach... (D15B1 engine) She has 300k on her and it was mine for the grand price of..... *drum roll* one dollar! Pretty happy with what I have. Almost no rust, interior is acceptable and now I'm trying to save the bit under the hood that chooches.

The PO said there was a head gasket leak, but after poking around a bit, finding that the fluids are clean, and consulting a mechanic friend I was pretty confident it was a burnt valve. Compression test made 170psi+ in three cylinders, and one made zero. Low and behold, took the head off and there's a hole in one of the damn exhaust valves.

Here's where bad things happened.... I'm 18 years old, now I like to think I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but I've never done a head gasket and timing belt before. I got overconfident and didn't read enough. I've been organized all though disassembly but uh.....

I just slipped the timing belt off of the cam gear. Just like that... Didn't bring anything to TDC, didn't mark anything.. Nothing. My thought process at the time was 'I just won't move the engine before taking the head off, and I'll reset the timing when I get to that point'. Sooooooo.. please help me. I have a new head gasket, timing belt kit with a water pump and goodies and a new exhaust valve. I feel comfortable with everything except the timing.

How the **** do I set the timing after this mess? If I understand correctly, cyl. #1 is the one closest to the cam gear, furthest from the distributor. So set cyl. #1 to TDC and put the head back on with the cam gear in 'UP' position (I actually don't have 'UP', my cam gear has two line marks opposite of each other, and one line mark between those two that's closer to one of the two), then just put on the timing belt plus tensioner and all that without moving anything? By doing this, couldn't the camshaft be in up/TDC for a cyl. other than #1, thus the engine would be trying to open exhaust valves on intake for cyl. #3 or something?

I'm not expecting anyone to baby me thought this (though it'd be appreciated). If y'all could point me towards the right reading material or yt video that'd be amazing! I can't find anything that shows you how to set timing after totally ignoring timing during head removal.

In addition to that can of worms, advice on removing very very stuck headgasket material from the block and removing that crank pulley would be great. For the pulley I was considering just sticking screwdrivers though it, which would brace against the oil pan flange. Would that work? I got the head cleaned and sanded flat and the head guy said it was the most stubborn head gasket he's ever scraped and sanded away. My apologies if this is a run on post, I'm just quite frustrated.

Thank you!

 

Anyone?

 

Set Cam Gear to #1 CYL to TDC:
Of course, the valve cover is off of you are doing the timing belt. Look at the cam lobes over CYL #1. Neither one of them should be pushing down onto rocker arms. At this time, the marking of the cam gear should line up with the marking on the plastic piece behind the gear.

Set Crank to TDC:
The timing belt sprocket that slides over the crankshaft has a mark on it that represents TDC. Line this up with the marking on the engine block. To verify that the piston #1 in at TDC, either looking into the spark plug hole, or stick a tool long enough in the spark plug hole so you could turn the crank is watch to see if the tool moves up or down.

Once these markings are aligned, the belt is ready to be installed.

 

Thank you very much, this helps me a lot. I've already found some of this info but this makes me a little more confident. Hopefully I'll be putting her back together tonight or tomorrow.... I'm still fighting with the crank pulley.

Cheers!

 

Have you gotten the bolt out of the pulley?

 

Haha, hey man. Just opened this forum for the first time since the little '89 and me were together... sad stuff, moved away from home and left it with my old man and he didn't want it parked - sold to the highest bidder! Oh well... Coming back to HT cuz I'm struggling through a clutch job on a 2002 civic.

Anyway, to answer your years old question: I had to go to a local shop and pay a tech like $50 to swing by my place after work with a big cordless impact. Still the fastest $50 I've spent lmao. She smoked a bit after I got it together, valve stem seals was my guess but it sure was a fun summer car!

Take care out there