Honda Prelude - timing belt exploded and now I'm in a silly situation

[Can'tWeld]

So I've got a mk5 Prelude, right. Bit of a rustbucket, manual swap, but it's a 2.2 VTi so it's at least the "right" engine. The other day I was picking soon-to-be-mrs CW up from work (after a 12 hour shift) and when I got there I noticed a weird rumbling/grinding noise which I suspected at the time to be a belt tensioner but hoped it would make it home.

Spoiler: it didn't make it home. Started running really rough and cutting out halfway up the M65, refusing to idle.

Pulling off the rocker cover that night revealed a tensioner had indeed let go (i'm like the doctor House of cars, me) and I should have called the RAC as soon as I got there and not waited until junction 4 of the M65, but you live and learn, eh. Belt was pretty much cut in half and must have been slapping against the timing covers, also loose as hell, I assume it jumped a tooth or two.

Anyway, it was still running, badly, when I turned it off, and didn't make any bad metal-on-metal noises so I'm hoping I've got away with it, but the upshot is it's time to put on a new belt.

I got the car towed home and (being in a rush to get the boy to school) just got them to leave it outside my house. On a massive hill.

It only occured to me later that jacking the car up to undo the bottom crank bolt is going to be a nightmare on a massive hill.



Still not really sure what to do with it.

 

[Bullet2012]

Err, tow it somewhere more suitable?

 

[Blobber]

 

[optima21]

roll it down to the bottom of the hill where it will be flat

 

[zzr1200]

roll it down to the bottom of the hill where it will be flat

Or take the handbrake off and out gear it'll find its own level ground for the repair, best not to sit in it at the time....

 

[DanZac]

It only occured to me later that jacking the car up to undo the bottom crank bolt is going to be a nightmare on a massive hill.

Just jack the back up more than the front - Simples.

 

[Matrixx]

You need to check if it is a free running engine , in some cars the valves won't clash with the pistons if the belt goes.

 

[Hopefuldave]

On a more serious note...

Camchain jumped on my Accord (2.4 VTEC), not far enough to break anything - the Aldi Endoscope didn't show any kisses on the pistons once the plugs were out, and none of the valves were bent (if they are, you'll have valves that don't return fully as you rotate the crank/cams) - it's worth checking for that damage before you go much further!
When it came to loosening the crank pulley bolt, it had a pair of us with 5 feet each of scaffold pole over the ends of a tee bar swinging on them - if yours has never been off, it took about 1000 footpounds or more of torque to get it to shift, good luck... There's a tool to fit the giant hex socket on the inside of the pulley, at least on the Accord, a few Local Currency Units, can be braced with a Tee bar or wrecking bar against the subframe or a suspension arm, worth every penny! Don't be tempted to heat the bolt, it'll cook the rubber layer in the pulley and knacker it, DAMHIK.

Replace the tensioner, while you're at it!

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Personally, seeing you say it's a rust bucket, I'd put it on eBay as "spare or repair".

 

[daedalusminos]

Put it on eBay as "starts on the button"

 

[James1979]

Do the lights work?

Put it on Etsy

 

[mcostello]

Ran when parked. (Also means it won't start.)

 

[Can'tWeld]

Well that was an ordeal! Paid some bloke off Facebook who claimed to be a mobile mechanic to do the work as I was struggling for time, turned out he was a major pee-taker, he was meant to bring a trailer and recover it up to his unit (I don't even think he had a unit, in hindsight) - anyway it looks like he tried to tension the old belt up and drive it up there, whereupon it snapped.
After giving me the runaround I realised he was a pee-taker and demanded the keys back, will never see the money again (says it was for 'parts' but there was none left the next day and no parts in sight, hmm) anyway, eventually got them back and had it recovered up to the back street behind my house.
Not knowing the condition of the engine now I decided to take a chance and throw a new belt on it anyway (car's got sentimental value as I got it shortly after turning my life around and moving in with my new mrs, it's meant to be our wedding car later this year).
The job turned into an absolute bloody nightmare anyway, had to pay someone with an impact to come and remove the bottom pulley bolt, eventually got it stripped down and got the new belt on, also found out the whole reason it had done it in the first place was an 8mm bolt in the middle of the tensioner, the stupid thing had snapped (fell out of the bottom cover when i removed it) and the tensioner was just floating around, so no tension on the belt.
Eventually got it back together - learned the intricacies of timing up the H-series balance shafts - there's a service plug which you have to take out for the rear balancer and insert a 6mm bolt in to lock the balance shaft in place.
Anyway, fired it up and amazingly it all seems to have survived - running better than ever!
Took it 50 miles or so last night and it ran like a swiss watch, but no vtec for some reason, I think the oil level was a bit low (though it was still above the minimum mark) as i topped it up reset the ECU just in case and it's vtec-ing just fine now.

No idea how an interference engine can survive a broken belt but I've heard of it happening before - I guess the car gods were smiling on that particular day.

 

[bricol]

My usual, non-professional, advice to anyone who has survived similar is to sell if quick!

Before the over stressed valve heads think about leaving the over stressed valve stems!

I have picked a valve head out of the sump after a piston kissing incident - mate kept driving when it made a funny noise, noticed it felt a bit down on power, and made it home . . . where it sounded really funny!

Once the head was off, and the damage to it was admired, it was impressive how you could see the con-rod little end though the hole in the piston crown that the valve head had hammered it's way through, the valve head ending up in the sump.

A rebore, over-size pistons, a new con-rod and a different head, it's still running 20 yrs later though.

 

[Can'tWeld]

Got me all worried now bricol, couldn't I have just been allowed to float around on my happy cloud of denial?

To be fair I'm not planning on ever selling this car. Worst case scenario would be swap another engine into it (possibly a built K20 with a turbo, since H-series bits are getting thin on the ground and while they're a very nice engine, you can do more with less these days). So I guess I'll just see how it goes for now.

 

[bricol]

Good plan - if you are maybe intending, and able to do such a thing, it's not quite so bad if you have to.

Another mate survived a similar incident - engine made noise, discovered if he kept the revs up, it didn't. So he kept the revs up, even in traffic, while he got home. Asked me to listen and started it - sounded horrendous. Inspection revealed like yours the tensioner had failed - all the balls had escaped from the bearing.

Fitted a new cam belt kit to it for the sake of a the few quid and it did run okay until he sold it - and the guy he sold it too never came back, so . . .

Reckon the higher revs kept the belt taut - and the valves clear of the pistons. Idle revs didn't.