lamont1 wrote:
>
> ok, i let the car sit for hours then i went and started it up and took it
> for a drive. turns out it didnt make a single sound the first ten minutes,
> when the car warmed up it started pinging . i say pinging because i know
> that pinging is caused by hot spots and it makes sense that it would get
> worse as the engine got warmer and you cant hear it at all when the engine
> is cold or warm.
> No i never used a timing light because i dont have one, i figured if i
> got the mechanical timing right nothing would change. I also figure the
> engine is running too strong and smooth to have a valve problem and i
> think valves sound worse when the engine is cold anyway. i will retard
> the timing tomorrow by ear until i get a timing light, i really dont have
> to drive much this week anyway.

It's unlikely you'll get the timing correct by ear. You could easily be off
+/- 5° and not be able to tell if it's correct.

You still need to double check the mechanical timing if you haven't done
that already.

> I guess im very very lucky to have no valve damage . i read that only 25
> percent of honda timing belt breaks end up with no damage. from now on im
> never going to let a timing belt go past 60k and i will check my belt
> every 10k.

Why? Simply removing the upper belt cover won't show you much except
whether or not you have an oil leak. To really inspect a belt, it needs to
be removed from the engine and bent backwards from it's normal orientation
to open up the teeth. However, it's not recommended to do this on a good
belt as it may weaken it. Just change the thing at the recommended interval
and be done with it.

> i believe i didnt get bent valves due to the fact that my belt didnt
> actually break, instead a few teeth on the belt just came off.

This IS a broken belt. It's the principle mode of failure.

> there was a six inche strip on the belt with no teeth.

That's more than a few. That's a near catastrophic failure.

> also, there was a lot of oil and grime in the bottom of the timing belt
> cover

It sounds like you had a bad oil leak which caused the belt to fail. Oil
contamination on the belt will soften the belt degrading the rubber and lead
to its premature failure. I hope that you replaced the cam seal, front
crank seal, and valve cover gasket while you were in there. Otherwise...

> i believe that the belt slipped enough to shut off the engine but not
> enough to cause the pistons to crash into valves.

Maybe, however it doesn't take much on an interference engine to bend
valves. The engine can still run being one or perhaps even two teeth off on
the mechanical timing. Any more and the valves will get bent. Six inches
of shredded belt teeth is more than enough to lead to damage. You may want
to do a compression check once you've got the mechanical and ignition timing
straightened out.

> the belt that i took out was honda oem, that's probably why. i should
> have bought a honda oem but i dont think i will have this car when
> it hits 290k. it has 230k on it now and it looks great and runs great.

Then again, you may have just gotten extraordinarily lucky. Sometimes if
the belt breaks at idle, then there may not be valve damage though this is
rare. However, if the belt broke with the engine at speed there are nearly
always bent valves.

Eric