no its cool man i want input. I just remember hearing that when a SOHC timing belt snaps youre either screwed and u need a new head, or its fine and u dont need a new one. I never heard of something inbetween. I just hope the head is fine. I dont have money for this **** right now

 

Back in ukraine we had the belt snap on a mercedes step-van...I-6 only 4 bent valves...don't know why...don't know if it applies to our engines...

 

why did it snap? was the belt in bad shape already or did you not notice?

 

No, the valves don't automatically get bent. Sometimes you can be lucky (very rare) and you can just replace the timing belt.

 

That sux. This remind me that I need to get mine replace cuz im 21,000miles over and it could break anytime soon.

 

You wouldn't need a new head... just two to four valves most likely. It usually won't bend more than one or two cylinders' woth if it bends any.

 

When the valve bends, its because it has hit the piston. So i'm wondering if it is possible that there is damage to the piston? I'm thinking no b/c the pison is prolly made out of stronger stuff than the valves. I don't get how the whole head is shot because of a bent valve.

 

Ok, do you know it's the timing belt or are you just thinking worst case here?

Like AOD said, it's bent becasue it hits the piston. Not good; for the valve (obviously) or for the piston. Good news is that it's not a given that any of it is damaged. I have seen/heard of timing belts breaking and just replacing the belt to get back on the road.

I will have an extra head here in a week or so. You may have to clean it up, but I can hook you up. Let me know if it comes to that.

 

Disclaimer: The following post is based on the speculation that it is actually a broken timing belt.

It's possible to damage the pistons, but very unlikely (and almost impossible on a Civic). When my brother first bought his GSX (for $400), the harmonic balancer belt had snapped and taken the TB with it. Two of the pistons had huge valve divots in them.

On a Civic, it's about a 50-50 chance of having bent valves or not. I'm assuming you didn't try to crank the car after the fact, so I can tentatively say you're going to be ok... if that's reassuring at all.

 

i did a mini-me swap about half a year ago and i was slowing down for the dip in this road as i was turning to go up this big *** hill i was in 1st gear going 8 miles an hour and all of a sudden "SNAP" clunk clunk clunk, so i pulled over and the timing belt was totaly snapped and laying at the bottom.

So me and my dad towed the car back home and took the head off and found that one of valves in the number one cylinder barely kissed the top of the piston and all of the carbon built up on the valve was gone and it was shinny. It didn't do a single thing to the piston but we just swaped out the old head and put on some new gaskets and we were off and running within a few hours.

but i know how you feel and it gets pretty frustrating.


ended up selling the v-tec head for 20 bucks