9
I spent 6 months swapping a junkyard motor into my Civic without ever checking the timing belt condition first.
Turns out a 1998 timing belt with 120k miles on it snapped on the third test drive and bent every valve, which is how I learned that $35 and an hour of work upfront beats pulling a whole engine twice.
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
the_vera1h ago
Oh man, that's a rough one but at least you know exactly what a valve-piston handshake feels like now. Next time throw a new Gates belt and water pump on before you even drop the motor in, you'll thank yourself when it fires up first try. Make it a rule that you never install an old timing component no matter how good the junkyard deal looks, period.
4
hugo_jones22h ago
Learning the hard way builds way more character than watching a YouTube tutorial. Now you'll never forget to check a timing belt again, and that lesson sticks way better than the $35 version.
0