1985 civic. Great price. Has a broken timing belt and good body, according to seller. Means bad head(?) and damaged valves(?) on this car? Assuming that I didn't want to do a engine swap, is this as simple an issue as replacing the head and belt, and driving it? Its a honda, so there can't be too many gotchas w/ this model, upgrade-wise? How easily( Read: cheaply.. ) could I get this back on the road?
It depends how much damage the broken belt has caused. If there are several valves firmly embedded in the tops of the pistons you might want to look for a known good secondhand engine.
Could be easy and cheap, could be major PITA. Out last lemons car had the same problem. It was an 86 Civic Si. Six bent valves were replaced, new rings and bearings. Jensenman did it with the block still in the car. We tried to blow it up for 16 hours with nary a puff of smoke. Total cost was around $100. It was probably at an idle when the belt broke.
It could also have had FUBARed head, pistons, cam, and on and on. It depends on where the cam stopped and how many rpms it was turning when the belt snapped. Assume the worst and hope for the best.
that should be a non fuel injected car, so if you want to switch it to efi keep it in mind it a bit of work. Also i've found that parts are rather hard to come by if you need anything for the car. The car will have a d-series motor, but the transmission and head bolts won't match up to a 88-98 d series motor, so your outta luck. Your best bet would be to either switch it to efi, or add a 92-95 motor and run it with a carb. the valves are available from honda but are very expensive.
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