Questioni bought this car from a gurl who drove it regularly and then a few weeks ago she snaped her timeing belt i belive...and when i took the valve cover off...i noticed that the lil arm rockers that sit on the springs under one of the cam sprokets were all off there place...so i put them back on and put the cam shaft on and its very loose...and the springs are compressed...and i have heard about valves bending when u snap a timeing belt...anywayz i tried to manual crank the main crankshaft to see if the pistons move and i dont hear anything in the engine, nuthing hits or scrapes...so i wanna put on new belts, but before i do that, i wanna know if the cam sprocket is suppose to be loose or not? and how can i decompress the valve springs to make the arm rockers to stay in place...thanx! also this is my first time owning a car like this..i am more used to hondas with SOHC engines.
Nick
AnswerNick,
Because the Eclipse uses an interference engine, it's common that if the timing belt breaks while the engine is running, you will bend at least one valve. Both of the cam sprockets should be on tightly. You can perform a compression test to verify what cylinders may be showing low compression, and which valves are damaged.
If your head components are loose or weren't on correctly when you removed your valve cover, I would guess your head is damaged. I would recommend removing and rebuilding the cylinder head. You will need to buy or rent a spring compressor to be able to pull the valves out. The timing belts (main belt and balance belt) should be replaced every 60,000 miles, along with the hydraulic tensioner, to avoid future problems like this. If you plan on doing the work yourself, here is a very good reference web site you can use:
http://www.vfaq.com/index-main.html
That site offers good information, but I would recommend having a service manual as well.
Good luck!
