Hello fellow Honda enthusiast. I have a 90 civic SI that I've had for 10 years now. And has basically been collecting dust for the past 4 years as I had recently came upon a new daily driver. The engine in the car is a D16ZC block and ZC head (A6 block/A6 head) Over the past year I decided to do a mini me swap with a Y8 head. Went to the junk yard pulled the head and IM from a 2000 ex . Took it to machine shop got it cleaned up and surfaced. I put a new cam - Skunk2 stage 2 race cam , Crower springs and retainers. Stock Y8 cam gear. A6 tensioner (The y8 tensioner fit only once I drilled out the pivot point to fit on prong of the block. It was loose and didn't have much play when timing belt was installed so I opted for the A6 tensioner.) And a Y8 timing belt. We put the tune in and I got the first start under my belt . Broke the cam in for 20 min. But here's my issue. The timing belt is EXTREMELY tight. I no it's supposed to be tight but this is toooo tight. Even with the tensioner bolt completely removed still tight. I have yet to take the car out for a test drive because I no the belt is going to snap. The A6 belt was extremely loose , I tried a D15b7 belt that was loose to the point it would be jumping teeth. And then there's the Y8 that took 2 of us to install. Now I'm getting ready to order a Gates timing belt for the Y8 in hopes of it might be more accurate to the head type rather than a after market belt from NAPA. My Question is- is there anything to do with the upgraded Cam and Valve train that can cause this issue? I have been considering a Adjustable cam gear in hopes of the overall diameter being slightly smaller than the stock Y8 cam gear. What are your thoughts on the Gates timing belt and it's fitment ? If anyone has any insight that can shed some light on these issues would be greatly appreciated Thanks.

 

Shame you spent all that money but you couldn't spend 2 minutes on Google.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...ni-me-2814128/

 

That's funny 😂 what do you think I spent the last year doing ? I take it you don't have a Gates timing belt or no about the fitment compared to stock. Thanks for taking time to read the thread and give a half *** answer. My man 😂

 

Expect some ribbing if you come asking questions unprepared. Walls of text without paragraphs are also hard to read.

Anyway, there are 2 combinations I found after googling a few minutes myself:

Y8 timing belt and Y8 tensioner
D15B7 timing belt and A6 tensioner

Aftermarket belts may not follow OE specs, go with a Honda timing belt. Count the teeth on the belt you have - y8 belt should have 104 teeth. You could try the y8 tensioner again (Sounds like you did, but it didn't fit properly?), or go with the B7 timing belt like this write up mentions since you already have an A6 tensioner.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...te-up-2821742/

Best of luck. Hopefully you didn't do any damage to the cam journals by running it with a crazy tight timing belt.