I have an 83 Civic whose timing belt broke recently. I am in the process of changing it. I will be pulling the crankshaft pulley tomorrow. However, I recently found out that this car has a interference engine and that my valves may have been damaged. Is there anyway I can tell if the valves are bent or my pistons damaged without taking the heads off? I have limited time and I know that taking the heads off will mean a lot more time for me to complete the job. Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks, Andrew Browne-Kondo

if when you start it up it runs like crap or doesn't run at all your valves are bent. how/when did it brake, if it happened on the highway or something they are probably bent, if you shut the engine off right away and stopped you may have gotten lucky.

compression test it,it will deifinatly tell ya. Thats the definate answer.

Those above things can be caused by stuck valves too, not just bent ones. Best bet, take the head off, remove teh valves, and have them measured by a machinist. He can tell you for sure. I can tell you that if your belt broke while running, your valves are almost certainly bent. Luckily valves are fairly inexpenive, there are just alot of them.

well to be honest with you your valves are more likely to be bent or even broken how i may know i just finished my car and it needed a valve job ,resurface,i payed $135 and $60 for the gaskets they will have to be replaced i took it off and put it back in it was a really pain it runs better than beforebut if you have a real good friend that owns his own shop then you can save yourself some $$$$$$ but im sure those will be your problems

ok first, run a compression test on the cylanders (you can get a compression tester at your local auto store). if one cylander is lower than the others, put oil directly into the cylander. if it raises the compression significantly its bad rings. if it doesnt seem to raise compression much its bad valves.