a friend of mine snapped his timing belt on his 92 gs, so I tore it apart to replace the belt and hope for the best, after getting the covers off and what was left of the old belt, I set the bottom end at tdc, and set the exhaust cam at tdc and when I tried to set the intake cam at tdc it went about half way through it's stroke and got stuck, not wanting to force it I assumed the worst ( valve damage ) so I pulled the cylinder head off today, there seems to have been some piston to valve interaction, but the question is this, with the bottom end at tdc, should I have been able to set the intake cam at tdc assuming that everything else was ok? in other words if there was no damage to the valve train, and it was just out of time would I have been able to set the top end to tdc after the bottom end was already at tdc?

I hope this little ramble makes sense, I need some help settling this argument with a friend of mine

 

were u rotaating the cam 180 degrees? because that might make it hit on of the pistons

 

You have to set the cams first and then set the crank at tdc, the reason that you were not able to turn the cam over all of the way is that you were pushing the intake valves into the piston in either #1 or #4 cyclinders. since you have the head off you can check for sligtly bent valves by tuning the head on its side and pouring a little solvent in the intake and exhaust tubes, if it leaks right past the valves they are bent. Better yet take it to a machine shop and have them vacuum test the head. If you can see marks on the pistons then most likey you have bent valves, civics usually bend valves when the T/B fails.

 

thanks for your help,