The timing belt on my 2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6 broke several months ago. It's been sitting in my driveway ever since. The engine does function, can definitely hear a lot of clacking from the engine. In fact, I drove it home from work at night and while it sounded horrible, it was running. I didn't know it was the timing belt at the time, but the next day I brought it to a local tire/general services type shop and the mechanic there said it was the timing belt (it was around 70K since the first timing belt replacement, so it was due). And so it has sat ever since, aside from running it in the driveway a few times a month. I think I could drive it to a shop that is less than a mile away. But my question is: what is the more cost effective solution: engine rebuild or replacement? The car does run, the heads definitely need to be replaced, but compared to some of the horror stories I've heard concerning broken timing belts, it seems like I'm in a bit of a gray area as far as rebuilding vs. replacement. The prices for J35 engines all seem to be around $2K. I'm guessing labor costs would almost double that. Not sure what a rebuild would cost or if it's even feasible. I'm just starting to test the waters here. I use my pickup as my daily driver now, but I would like to keep the miles down on it and use the Accord as my commuter and the pickup for around town. Again, it all comes down to cost and if it's worth it. Has anyone else faced this dilemma?

Thanks for your help

 

Did the timing belt break or did it just jump time? Take a look in your owner's manual to see what the recommended interval is for TB changes, because 70K seems low mileage for a timing belt.

 

This was actually the 2nd timing belt. I did the first one around 100K. Sorry, I wasn't very clear.

 

Since the engine runs, your timing belt didn't break and likely jumped time. You may be lucky, where you can get the engine in time and the cylinder heads don't have bent valves. The only way to know is to see how far off the cams are from the crankshaft, then get them in time. Then do a compression test to see what cylinders are low on compression (if any)