I replaced my head gasket after doing my timing belt a week prior. Drove the car to get gas and everything was fine. Just finished the head gasket, replaced oil, coolant, and started the car up. Sounded great for 30 seconds then a clunk before shutting off. Car no longer cranks. I was recording and did capture the sound briefly.

Is my engine shot? What was this noise. I was quite confident I replaced everything and fluids before attempting to start vehicle.

Here is the video of the sound it made via YouTube.

https://youtu.be/1yrnip-z_i8

Thanks for any comments and advice in advance. First time Honda owner and first post in the forums. These forums have been of great help so far with the repairs I've done. Hopefully it's something minor but the noise it made I'm expecting the worse, still would like to find out the cause either way.

 

First guess is a cam came loose. Second is a gear came loose. Open the valve cover and lets see. It's going to be something sizable and obvious by the sound of that.

 

Thank for a quick reply 99stockcivic! I'll be taking the valve cover off later today. I did spin the engine from the crank pulley this morning and the tension seemed to slip at about a revolution of a turn and it also made a bit of a squeaking noise at that same point. I also changed the camshaft seal with the head off. Not sure if oil leaked onto the belt and caused it to jump teeth. I'll post an update once I get the cover off and see what I find.

Thanks again for the help 👃

 

Removed valve cover and timing belt cover to reveal the timing belt has jumped. I never replaced the tensioner springs so when I adjusted tension from the adjusting bolt I don't believe I got proper tension despite the tension feeling rather tight pushing against it.

I know the engine could be destroyed but what precautions do I need to take to put the top and bottom back in time together.

Must I remove the woodruff key to rotate the bottom or top end or will simply removing the timing belt allow me to position either end in TDC. Regarding the balancer and oil pump do I just need to rotate those to their respective timing marks before replacing the belt. I recall there being a service hole to lock the oil pump in place, how do I know the correct position now that everything is off time.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm hoping the engine has a chance of being okay without extensive damage. I would like to avoid removing the head again but will do so if necessary to replace any damaged valves. Thanks all :-)

 

Like stated above you need to find the source of issue. Yes there is a port where I use a screwdriver and spin oil pump until it locks. I've done so many a can spin it freely and when it naturally lines up it's home. The balance shaft just line it straight up on it's marks. This engine has a flat plane crank. Use a screwdriver and bring #1 to TDC. Now using the crankshaft bolt turn the crank CCW to the nine o'clock position. Now all the pistons will be dead even in the middle of the cylinder. You can now set you camshaft without valves hitting any pistons. Put the pointer arrow on cam straight up. Cam is now set. Using crank bolt rotate crank from 9 o'clock back to alignment marks TDC CLOCK WAYS. now it's all lined up again

 

Wow, thanks so much Hondaslave1342! This is all such detailed information that I can't wait to apply tomorrow. I had no idea about the engine being a "flat plane crank" and the nine o clock position will certainly come in handy, TIL. These forums are great and the community is awesome. I'll certainly be a fan of Honda from here on out.

One last thing, based on the sound the engine made before stalling, and your opinion, is it possible a piece of the valve could have broken off and could cause it to become a projectile upon start up? It just sounded so bad my heart dropped when I heard it and I know I can source a used head but don't have the tools to pull an entire engine if further damage occurs.

Thank you once again 👍

 

You need to tear into it. I would pop the v/c and upper timing belt cover off. Pull the plugs and slowly turn CCW and line up the crankshaft marker on lower tb cover. If it down line up follow procedure I mentioned. For positive proof do a leak down test. You can buy one at harbor freight for $20. It will confirm health of engine. These engines are plentiful and very inexpensive..

 

Update: I realigned the crank with the cam to TDC in the process you wrote out as well as the oil pump to the balncer. Before putting back the valve cover I checked the valve clearances to see if the valves could be bent. I had just done a valve adjustment before the timing jumped teeth and all of this happened.
Unfortunately there were two or three valves that had excessive clearance. I went ahead and placed the valve cover on and still decided to try and start the car. No crank.
Does this means the valves are too bent to hold compression or could it be something with the block now. I will be removing the head but do not want to source a new head if the block is toast as I won't have the equipment to do the haul.

Thanks again for all the help HS and others that chine in :-)

 

No crank? Or do you mean crank and no start? You need to check compression. With no compression it will turn over abnormally fast. Does it crank in a normal fashion? Do a leak down test. Harbor freight has a guage for $20

 

Was to timing marks off when you tire it down?

 

UPDATE: I was able to retime the crank and cam. Car started. However, decided to rip the head off again knowing there would have to be some damage after belt movement and that horrible sound at the end of the video. Confirmed, the valves did make contact with pistons on exhaust sides.

So I went in search for a head and ended with one from a junkyard and got everything back together. Car started and I thought I could move on to suspension work.
*I should note that I never pressure checked this head (replacing the head was never in my budget for this learning experiment. I understood how time consuming this could potentially be down the line, but time for me is an abundance in my current situation)

After first start there was initially some white smoke which I assumed was some coolant being burned off. It stopped burning after a few minutes. *Radiator cap off

Second start was the same and this time I let the car run for around 15 minutes to allow air out of the cooling system. Radiator fan turned on twice before I shut off the vehicle.
* Radiator cap off

I'm beginning to think my gamble went bad.

Third start, following a couple of days, the white smoke was more apparent and did not go away after a few minutes. To the point where I shut the car off as to not smoke out the neighbors. *Coolant is now properly filled and radiator cap on

I've already begun to take off hoses, distributor, exhaust nuts, etc. to return this head (did buy a warranty) when I get to the intake side. Get underneath the car and taking them off is incredibly easy. Used a box wrench and was able to break them off with a couple of fingers(if I had to describe how much force I applied). Got me to thinking when I cracked the bottom last nut closest to the thermostat and coolant dripped out.

**Could I have not tightened the IM nuts down enough**
Unable to get a torque wrench in there so I've read to just get them as hand tight as possible.

I took a break as the sun began to set. Just got to thinking about how the thermostat and a hose seems to run under the intake manifold??

Gasket is more of a fabric cardboard type, not the same material from the old gasket which had some type of aluminum or metal finish coated over cardboard? Gasket came from eBay and I believe there was some other material around what I believe to be the coolant port to the intake. Should this material be a metal or rubber type?

Sorry, this was incredibly long and if you get through this I applaud your patience and your kindness to help others like me on these forums. Just thought I'd get some more experienced opinions before I take off this head tomorrow for the THIRD time.

The car sounded great despite initial smoke waves and idled around 700. My glee was short-lived 😂

Thanks again in advance!

 

It could be you just didnt tighten the bolts down poperly, and it leaked, possibly ruiing the gasket. What torque procedure did you follow for the head?

The intake (to me) tighteness is also important, but not as critical as the head. The head can't tolerate any looseness, it will leak somewhere.

 

I used the 3 step torque sequence I have used a Haynes manual to follow the torque specs for the 4 cylinder model.

Final update (last questions if you all are willing to help. Still greatly appreciated!)

Decided to purchase a remanufactured cylinder head from Allied Motors after factoring costs of used head from scrap yard, valve job, valve guides, resurfacing costs would have brought the total over the cost of what I purchased the remanufactured head.

After putting on the new head, using new head bolts (granted eBay), felpro head gasket and intake manifold gasket. I still seem to be burning coolant. This is after of course my first initial incident when the belt jumped and valve contact was made with pistons. I saw nothing to signify any cracks in the block when engine was apart. Made sure my intake manifold bolts were secured to manifold , tightened from inside to out, however without a torque wrench as I'm unable to get in the tight spaces and head bolts torqued in 3 step sequence.

Could the valve to piston contact have caused a crack invisible to the naked eye that is letting coolant in or could my intake manifold be leaking into one of the cylinders?

There was also a scratch on the block from the dowel pins that made its way, but not completely to a hole, I want to say a coolant passage (outside perimeter of cylinder 4). The scratch does not catch my finger nail and I also used copper spray on the head gasket.

The smoke is heavy especially after sitting for a day and is white. Will last for a good 10 mins before it dies down but still consistently smokes.

​​​​​​All the comments have been helpful and would like to find out what I'm doing incorrectly. Although this project and learning experience has not gone in my favor it has still been enjoyable and I still would like to get this Honda back on the road.

Thanks Honda-tech community!
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