Hello! Any advice on how to approach a broken timing belt on 95 GSR. Should I remove the head and check the valves or just replace the timing belt and see if it runs fine? Does anyone have experience or advice on this scenario? Plz and thanks.

Don 🤘

 

This is a zero tolerance engine. Did you buy it that way, or did it happen while you were driving it?

There's a pretty good chance the valves came in contact with the pistons. Maybe put a wrench on the cam gear bolt or even the block, just move back and forth a tiny bit to see if they're making contact,...but you're really going to need to take the head off to look for damage.
You could put on the belt and turn the engine over by hand to check for contact. That'd be really luck, but you could try that.

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The B18C1 is a high revving interference engine, there is virtually zero chance that it survived a timing belt failure without damage. Pull the head and check the valves and pistons for damage, putting a new belt on and trying to start it as-is could just make things worse.

 

Sound advice! Ya I'll just take the head off and have a look. I was hearing people saying to just try the new belt and maybe I'll get lucky but I wasn't sure is that was a good idea. I bought this car like this for very cheap as a project car with most original parts. And the dude said it snapped as he was slowing down. so Sounds like you two have a lot of knowledge so I'll take ur advice. Maybe I'll try cranking it with wrench first but definitely pulling that head off.

Thanks man

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thanks bro

 

The guy you bought it from gave it up and sold it cheap, most likely because he knew the engine is damaged.


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I'd pull the head off and inspect it or bring it to a reputable machine shop to have them inspect it.

 

Most mechanics would probably put a belt on it first and see if it runs. Throw on a new belt, turn it over by hand slowly and if you don't hear anything nasty, fire it up.

I had a belt break on my B18C at low rpms and she was just fine, new belt and off I went! Goodluck!

 

I asked the guy what he was doing when it snapped he said he was slowing down at a light. I was hoping to get away with just putting the belt on and as you said crank the engine with a wrench and go from there. But wasn't sure if it'll be a waste of time if I'm gonna a just have to possibly pull the head off anyway.

I bought the car with the intentions that it would be a project car anyway so I anticipated the worst case scenario. But then comes the question if there's valve damage or piston damage or both is it worth rebuilding or just swapping? ����

 

Piston damage is the biggest issue....more work and you've got'a ckeck the block too.

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I had the belt slip on the freeway, caused the ex valves to bend, I simply pulled the head off, sprayed brake cleaner in each port and watched for it to leak out under the valve. easy way to check for bent valves.

 

I've snapped my timing belt at high rpm twice on the B18C1. Neither time my valves bent.

 

I'm really hoping for the best. Gonna have some time to work on it tomorrow I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks for all the advice. Fingers crossed that baby fires up no issues

 

Was a sad day. Got the belt on, turned it over by hand heard nothing but fired it up and heard lots of knocking sounds like something seized up. Crankshaft hardly was able to turn.

 

Head must had droped a valve or its bent , are you sure the timing belt is on at TDC ?

Time for a rebuild..

 

I triple checked everything was at TDC. The tension seemed fine too. Next step will be pulling off head to see how much damage has been done. And if I'm gonna do that then yah, time to rebuild it.

 

Here's a sound clip

 

Wow so sorry for your bad luck, what a bummer! On the plus side a moderately skilled mechanic can remove and replace the head, I did it at home in about a days worth of work total. You should be able to take the head to a machine shop for about 150 bucks and get it all patched up, time to cross your fingers for no piston damage!

Goodluck, please let us know how it goes!

 

do you know what brand the broken belt was? just curious.
i'm currently running a gates but since the quality of their water pumps took a dive
i'm planning on stearing clear of them entirely.
ran across this timing belt kit with all japanese parts and almost messed myself lol .definitely getting a bando timing belt next time.

 

Ya it would have been such a come up had it been all good but it I'm looking forward to rebuild. Thanks to everyone here for the advice also. Much appreciated! I'll definitely keep you all updated on the progress.

No idea what brand belt the guy had on it. He said the head was rebuilt it has skunk 2 came so I'm thinking something was off and not able to keep up with the cams just a guess.

Looking into a rebuild kit next, any suggestions???

 

Sorry to hear it wasn't a simple timing belt fix. I guess I must have been lucky both times. Before you pull the head, turn the crank to TDC and verify both cams have the UP marks pointing up and that both cam alignment marks are touching, like -)(-. It's pretty easy to set your belt off a tooth.
If you have a leakdown tool, that will help verify the bent valve before you pull the head.
You have a couple options, buy a used head or get the valves repaired. Post a pic of the damage when you get the head off.

 

Ya. You know I actually think you're right about the cam timing. So here's the thing. This head had after market skunk2 cam gears on and when I put the cams at TDC one of the gears moved a couple degrees.
Also even if there was some bent valves shouldn't the car still start up​​​​​​ just run real rough? But if was way off timing it wouldn't even start like what happened?

 

No, if the timing is off it will run it will have less HP. It will feel rough and sluggish, when you drive it will feel bogged down.

 

Well I found the issue....

 

Wow! How the hell did that happen!? Certainly this wasn't caused by the belt snapping, the belt probably broke as a result of this... What a bummer!

 

How does this happen with the camshafts?