Everyone says buy the $300 timing kit. I used a $12 rope trick on my Civic and it worked fine

Luna Shah · 2026-10-07T02:25:04.203503+00:00

Last Saturday I was in my driveway in Fresno swapping the head gasket on my 98 Civic and realized I forgot to order the timing belt tool. The water pump was already off, the crank bolt was staring at me, and AutoZone wanted $38 to rent a pulley holder. I fed about 8 feet of nylon rope into cylinder one through the spark plug hole, cranked the piston up against it, and the bolt broke loose on the second try. I know the forums say you'll bend a valve doing this, but the rope method is fine if you rotate the crank by hand and don't force it. Anyone else skip the specialty tools on these old D series motors or am I the only one gambling out here?

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Everyone says buy the $300 timing kit. I used a $12 rope trick on my Civic and it worked fine | Budget Project Cars - HW Forums