Is the J32 an interference engine? Meaning do the valves and the pistons take up the same space during opposing strokes.

I got that UR pulley, and since I fairly certain that this is an interference engine, I m going to have a mechanic do that work.

 

Yes, i am positive it is an interference engine.

 

 

Sure is. The shop I've always gone to recommended I make sure I do the timing belt right on time. They had just had to replace all the valves on another CL-S who's timing belt had snapped. $4200 in damage.

 

He could have bought 2 engines for that price.

 

The fully assembled heads only cost about $1,000 each brand new from Honda so $4,200 for a complete replacement is a hell of a lot in labor charges. If $4,200 was truly the price they ripped someone off.

 

Why would the fact that it's an interference engine make a dfference in who does the pulley swap?

 

I'm also confused on that one.

 

Could be there was some piston damage in there, too. That would drive the price up a lot.

 

isnt that how they got the name stealerships?

 

The pulley doesn’t affect the timing of the valves. Also it will only go on one way because of the notch in the crank pulley and the inversly matching notch on the crank.

 

A new piston costs less than $100.

 

Well the timing belts runs of the crank, so if you dont do the swap correctly, you could potentially mess up the timing. There is a way to align everything to be sure your putting the new belts on with all the pulleys in correct positions, but I m just not that confident that I wanna take on that liability.

 

Yeah, but you have to open the bottom end to get to it. Labor.

 

Your confused I think. The belts for the pulley are the rubber drive belts that run your accessories.

The timing belt is in the engine. The pulley just unbolts & bolts back on. There's a notch on it so it will only go on 1 way.

 

That I did not realize, well that answers my question.

Thanks

 

point is i dont think a brand new entire long block plus labor is 4200$

 

Complete long block with labor for my Explorer is $3500. It's a lot less complex as well.

 

From H&A's web site: list price for a short block is $1897, the heads are $2741 for a pair.

 

The crank runs the timing belt. You are replacing the crank pulley which runs the alt and ps belt, not the timing belt. You wont be messing with the timing replacing the pulley

 

That doesn't mean you can't find one for much cheaper. Also, with bent valves there would be no reason to replace the entire block. Arguing this point is pretty irrelevant.

 

I don't know the total extent of the damage. All I know is they told me it was $4200. Could have been more then bent valves (likely was) and they could have had other work done at the time. I'm sure labor was included in that price too.

 

and even cheaper in some places

 

Depending on how fast the engine was turning when the valves hit the pistons, it is very possible that the pistons or the cylinder bores are damaged. I have seen some where the valve head seperated from the stem and pretty well garfed up everything.

Even with the discounted prices you quote, short block and heads is over 3700-add in 500 labor to do the change out and bingo, you have a 4200 bill.

My point is that 4200 may not be unreasonable depending on the damage.

 

Exactly. It's not a horrid price. Most shops aren't going to shop around online and find the place with the lowest price on parts. They're going to go through their normal parts supplier and in many cases something like this would be gotten through Acura directly. Point of all of it is that it pays to have the piece of mind that a your maintenance is up to date. Even if it cost $1000 to repair, that's still a hell of a lot more then what it would cost to replace your timing belt.

 

My point is that for a rebuilt or replaced valvetrain/head it shouldn't cost $4,200. Someone suggested the hypothetical that maybe the block was damaged too.

In any event there's no reason to go back and forth any more.