I will soon be purchasing a used 02 Civic with about 117k miles. I'm pretty sure the timing belt has not been replaced. How much does a timing belt cost, and just how difficult is it to open up the engine and replace it myself? How many hours of work can I expect it to take?

 

first off how much mechanical experience do you have?
and do you have acess to a high powered impact wrench?
and when you figure the cost(idk how much) remember to factor in the water pump and timing belt tensioner too

 

The timing belt is relatively cheap -- ~$30. The difficult part of the job is removal of the crank pulley bolt. This requires a strong impact wrench or a special hex tool in combination with a couple of big breaker bars and a length of galvanized pipe. You also must read up on the procedure to learn how to set the mechanical timing correctly.

 

My first time changing a timing belt, I was being instructed by my uncle [honda tech]
it took me.. a solid 4 hours i think, hardest thing I did to my car x.x as of yet that is..

 

+1, i have done a timing belt to, snd that bolt that holds on the pulley is a mother.

 

yea, the way i got that big bolt off was by ordering a special tool from honda [that hex tool] still i had to put my whole body weight (200+ lbs) to crack that bolt.. i never want to do a timing belt again