What a bad night, i was on my way to a pro soccer tryout for Las Vegas's new indoor soccer team and my car died on the way there. Didnt tryout and now have a dead vehicle in the garage... life is good.

My car has approx 140k on the odometer, and i did the first timing belt, water pump service, at approx 95k. Im always very good about my services and maintenance since i have the ability to do it myself so there is no excuse not to have it done. When i got the car home tonight i tore a bit of the engine down to reveal my thrashed belt and now im a bit concerned. This is my first snapped timing belt on an RL and only my second ever on i car i worked on. The last was just last month on a 02 Honda Civic EX where the valves were shot and i had to replace the whole engine to get the car running again. So the question is mine snapped at approx 50 MPH so if our engines are "collision" engine or "contact" motors then im sure i have internal damage. If our motors are not (god i hope) then a new belt goes on and im good... does someone know this answer in confidence?

Ill be calling the dealer tomorrow to ask someone in service also but seeing if ill get the answer here first before they open.

And im sure ill get asked, yes i used a Honda OEM parts for the replacement... i know its unusual for it to snap so soon another reason why im so bummed.

 

its not a death sentence, but at the least you will need some works done to the valve train

 

These motors are definitely interference motors. So if the belt snapped, the valves will have crashed into the head. You'll be lucky if only a few are bent. However if the motor cut off as soon as it snapped you may be okay. Good luck. Strange for the belt to have snapped only after 50K miles. I have known many people who have driven 200K on original belts. Something caused that belt to go prematurely.

I hope this works out for you. Definitely sucks to have something like this happen. But you should be able to replace the valves and keep it moving.

EDIT: was the only thing you replaced the belt and the water pump? the service requires more than that to be replaced.

 

ugh just what i didnt want to hear this morning... looks like ill be doing a whole motor swap on this car too then. It doesnt make sense to me to repair valve train etc etc on a motor with 140k on it when that repair will like run me into the same $$$ range after everything said and done with alot more labor then just doing a simple motor pull and drop with less miles.

And yes i know the service calls for the idler pulley, tensioner, etc to be done as well which they were. ill know more once i get inside there and see if there was an obstruction of some sort.

no bueno!

 

What a mess, couldnt pinpoint the failure at all as it was simply a mess inside the timing belt cover. All pulleys, tensioners, etc seemed to still move freely with no issue. Ill be riding my bike down to the dealer real quick to pick up my new parts to reassemble in hopes compression is still good but i kind of already know its shot as i was moving far too fast at 55MPH approx 3-4k RPMs at the snap so if the motor makes contact it would have certainly caused some serious internal damage.

 

Possibly too much tension on the Timing Belt? how do the insides of the covers look?

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking too!

 

Man, I need to learn more about internal combustion engines.

 

Alright car is reassembled. The inside of the covers i thought would be wrecked, broken, etc but surprisingly they were not. Everything checked out fine, the only piece that was really effected was the crank sensor guard (silver bracket looking thing) was bent but a hammer and flat ground fixed that. I still have no damn clue what could have happen, tension is controlled by that push pin style unit that engages the tensioner which all checked out fine and still spun and worked freely.

At start up the car idles heavy and on test drive you can tell shes very huffy puffy to get out of first gear. You can hear the metallic contact inside thats likely valves and honestly its just not worth the additional labor to me to go internal on it. I could probably just as well go in and reset and build the valve train but on a 140k motor the labor and time is not worth it to me. Ill be ordering a long block sub 80k miles and putting my new water, pump, belt, and etc that i just installed over to it once received and drop it in the car. Ill run a compression test on this one as well but i can already tell im not going to want to put the effort into this one any longer.

Most people run into shit like this and immediately want to get rid of the car... not me every time the valet brings this fat bitch out i fall in love all over again. Ill be back with more pics as i continue the progression of getting the new motor and then the actual drop.

 

Your car was white at one point; right?

Keep us updated on an engine swap. That would be the ultimate DIY.

On a side note, what wheels are those? 19" ZDX?

 

It was that powder blue color
Click for thread with pics
You noticed the only unpainted area on the car that NEVER gets seen when all the engine covers are on... ugh busted me.

And yes the wheels are 19" ZDX wheels with federal tires. Im so glad i made this wheel swap as they sort of just fit the car for me, not too blingy and sort of that OEM look still with a little size to them.

 

I know you said you didn't want to spend more time on the current motor, but I'm pretty sure instead of swapping the block you can get the rear head broken valves changed and machined, then install it back and you're set to go. And while you have the head off you can see if the piston is damaged since if you're going to change the block; you're going to swap the heads over

 

I didn't notice the Meteor Silver brace until you pointed it out. I remember your paint job thread from when you posted it.

In fact, you may notice I am posts 8 and 13 in your link.

 

oo7spy - I noticed for sure.

MrKev - As much as what your saying is exactly true, you have to weight it out. Labor is not an issue as i can do it all myself but..

- To repair i would have to pull heads, new valve train across the board (retainers & springs as well) since it makes zero sense to change just the broken or bent. Resurface the heads and re-install with new head gasket. Total cost estimate lets say... $600-700? Sound about right? parts and machine labor. Down time on the car? say about 4-7 days because you have to wait on machine shop to kick your heads back out. All that for 140k motor thats now pissed at me for hurting it.

or

- I buy a motor from a wrecker with sub 80k miles, put the new water pump, timing belt, and tensioners, etc on it. Slap that beeotch in the car in 1 day. Total cost $800-1000.

Ill pay the extra $200-300 to get a motor thats far less tired and to save me days of down time for the car as its 100+ degrees here in Vegas and riding my bike to work is not fun and the extra cost of a rental car for the down time just makes me steer away from that even more. Believe me when i have thought about all the options i have, if i were selling the car and didnt care maybe id cheap out on her but shes mine for a while so i wants whats best for the long run.

Compression test tonight
150 150 170
190 60 170

Anybody know what they should breath stock? i did the Google but cant find the info.

 

Maybe compare to the TL numbers to get a better idea or call Acura maybe someone there would know, good luck man glad to see your not panicked and have a legit plan!

 

Ahh I see, I thought you were just buying a block instead of the whole motor

Compression specs are minimum is 135 psi and maximum variation at 28 psi

 

I would say that the compression would be on the 170-190 with a 10% variation. That one cylinder with 60 psi is the one that kissed the piston.
If it was on the front bank I would have that head off in a minute and down to the shop for a new valve. Back on the next day and down the road in two.

 

Yeah that 60 is in the front bank, and i thought about doing that as well but im convinced that i want a new motor with far less miles at this point.

 

New development, i was driving around on the bad engine to work and back ONLY until i could secure a motor with low mileage. On the way home today the car went kaput completely and will not even stay at idle any longer, so shes parked in the garage for good and ill begin the engine pull when i come back from picking up my new transportation this weekend in the Bay Area, CA.

Secured the motor today right after that happened since i cant take my sweet time looking anymore. Picked up the below with 56k on the odometer, for $1050 shipped to Vegas from the East Coast. Car was hit from the rear side so motor is in tact and starts in the vehicle.

 

where did you get those wheels? niceee

 

Those ZDX wheels look dope! I just cringe at the thought of the spacers needed to clear the front calipers.

Good luck with the motor swap.

 

was just skimming through the thread and thought you smashed the RL, good to know you were only at the junk yard lol. good luck

 

Lolz, get that fat bitch back on the road ASAP!

 

any updates?

 

cool! this was interesting to me because, in general the RL guys dont do the work!
Good job and hope you get her on the road soon!

 

 

Cause most of the RL owners are old

 

Heavy VS justnspace.

 

 

I got $500 on Heavy in the first round.

 

I have been looking for the cable for my digi cam as its MIA for all the new pics and updates. I hope to find it soon.

I bought a 06 Ninja 636 last weekend to use to commute to work while my car was down and to enjoy a few joy rides from time to time.

This weekend i went ahead and pulled the motor. Its out of the car now and actually took me a little longer then expected since i did it alone (usually my bro helps) and i had alot to do this weekend.

Im hoping to get the new motor sometime this week and ill prep it to get dropped for the coming weekend. I have pics and ill post as soon as i find the cord. And i somewhat agree with the post of most RL owners dont work on their own cars. I do appreciate the few that do work on their rides as its nice to have that little bit of information online from their experiences as well when im wrenching.

 

I found the cord! Here are the pics.

Here is my new ride to get me around town.




I'm coming out (***I just noticed something, FAK look at the pin in the picker its about to slide out***) i was lucky.



Out the car



And i was planning to repaint my front bumper since i recently clipped a piece of semi truck tire, looks like ill be doing it alot soon than i thought as my dumb ass didnt see the picker hit my car while i was moving the motor around to the side of the car. A real poor execution of work on my part. I need to just slow down and pay more attention to detail.

 

great pics, we all make the simple mistakes... but you definitely got lucky on that pin.

 

Roll it out and spray down that engine bay now that it's accessible. great job..

Are you planning on swapping motor mounts?

 

nice!, if its not too much to ask for, could we get a video of the first start up of the motor your droppin in? Curious on how it sounds and is successful on first attempt.

 

Good question. I actually have a thread on here where i changed my mounts out previously. When pulling the motor i checked them all and they are all up to par and still very much in tact, from that change. But thanks for the heads up.

Ill certainly take that video for you... not a problem. and i already began the cleaning process on the engine bay. Good feedback boys.. thanks alot and ill keep you posted as i go.

 

Awesome. I suppose that is the giant pre-cat in front that people bitch about being a PIA to get out.

 

^the rear is harder.

 

I suppose we see that in the third pic of the motor too.

 

with the front, you can take off the cooling fans to have enough clearance.
the rear is a pain!!! no clearance at all!


Good job OP!
and your car has a battle wound now.