89 honda prelude timing belt brokewhat to do?

Question

my timing belt broke when i was going 40 miles per hour now how do i know if the motor is no good? should i risk putting in a timing belt to try it out? and what or were are the timing marks for my honda prelude 1989 2.0 si automatic please help i am not sure what i should do if i should just get a moto or fix the one i have and i dont know what i need to do please give me instructions asap

Answer 1

you can easily pop off the valve cover and see if anything is bent, broke, damaged. you can take off the timing belt cover (black long oval cover on side) and hand crank the top half of the engine w/ valve cover off and see if it moves freely.

40mph shouldn't be bad. I busted mine in my 85' CRX doing about 30mph in a neighborhood and I came away with zero damage.

Hit up a AutoZone, PepBoys and get a Haynes manual for your year Prelude. It will walk you through step by step how to test, fix, repair, replace it and anything else on your car. Even tell you timing marks, torque ratings, tools needed, etc. Best $25 you'll ever invest in your car.

If you are mechanical, and are not scared of say a brake job, doing calipers, rotors, then a timing belt will be no issue for you, and its not much to a Honda's.

Answer 2

I don't know what the guys above me are talkin' about. This isn't a tire, it's an incredibly intricate sequence of valves flying within millimeters of the pistons several thousand times a minute. When the belt brakes, that timing is lost. I've broken belts on interference motors at idle and destroyed half the valves. The 2.0 was an interference motor, which means that when that little belt broke it most likely sent all 16 valves on a collision course for your pistons.

Most likely you just need new valves (generally the pistons don't get too messed up.) Valves are pretty cheap, but having someone do it will be pretty expensive. If you end up trying to fix the car, you could try to get a used head at a junkyard, or ebay, or pull the head off and have someone fix yours for you. You don't need an entirely new motor though.
Goodluck!!

Answer 3

I would say it is time to put the old girl away to pasture. You very likely bent the valves, and the cost of fixing that as well as replacing the timing belt (and probably the water pump) is well above what the car is worth. The belt was supposed to be replaced in 90k intervals, and I am guessing it was not.

If the car was a 5sp manual, you could maybe sell it to a tuner that wants to drop in a VTEC motor and race it, but the automatic has a lot less value in that regard. It is probably time to send the car to the salvage yard.

If you are mechanically inclined (no offense, but I am guessing you are not), get another one and use this one for parts when your other one breaks.

Answer 4

if you timing belt broke then the engine stopped. Don't worry it is still good. But spend the $20 and buy a Haynes Repair Manual. If you read it a couple of times before you start you can do the work yourself and save a couple of hundred dollars, US, for labor. But it depends if you are mechanically inclined or not.

But like when your tire goes flat, you fix it. You don't get a new wheel. You engine should still be good.

Answer 5

If it's your typical no clearance engine. Your going to have more expense than just replacing the belt. Your cylinder head is probably damaged as could some of the pistons. If it's gone that far get rid of it.