Timing Belt 89 Civic Hatchback...

HI. I am going to look at a 89 Civic tomorrow. The owner says it needs a timing belt but does not know the extent of the damage. I know that a bad belt could cause bent valves or bad pistons. What is the easiest way to check for this?? Is there anything else I should look for? It's an automatic BTW. TIA.

If it's not running the only way is to remove the head.

Is that a difficult thing to do on these cars? If I purchase it (selling it very cheap) would I have to replace the engine? And in that case how much would a new-used engine run me? Installation can't be too difficult on these cars i'm assuming so I would do it myself. Thanks.

In my opinion it's simple. These are the easiest cars to work on, then again I have Honda exp. and work on all makes every day(mostly american piles). Before you begin the job I would suggest buying a repair manual to help you through the process www.helminc.com for Honda manuals.
There are many options for used engines, you can check local junk yards, find places online that deal with Jap engines. www.google.com is a great place to start looking.

Great thanks for the info. I had already checked google for engines and priced them around 500-600$ does that sound right? I'm going to check local junk yards as well. Thanks again.