Where is TDC on 2 liter Accord?

Try page 78 ( = 6-16) of the following pdf site:

Also try: The stick in the spark plug hole of #1 cylinder should work fine, too. Rotating only by hand should not damage anything, assuming you do not force rotation too much. Remember the front passenger side wheel has to be on the ground to get the engine to rotate via turning the front driver's side wheel.

The red marks do not indicate TDC; they are for setting the ignition timing. You should follow the procedure for checking the ignition timing anytime after replacing the timing belt.

Reports of being off a tooth are fairly common at this newsgroup. Hang in there.

"Forrest" wrote

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So are reports of people 'slapping it together' and then letting somebody else go for a 90 mile drive with it.

What's with that ?! ? ! ?

'Curly'

"Forrest" wrote in news:fXJ2j.65894$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net:

There's a good chance the belt is off a tooth.

It's too bad you didn't have the correct manual before installing the timing belt. The TDC mark is WHITE and is all alone on the flywheel. You needed to have the white mark lined up with the pointer, plus the cam pulley marks in the right place, before installing the timing belt.

The red mark in the middle of the group of three is the mark that should show up next to the pointer when the timing light is activated and the timing is set correctly.

Also you need to disconnect and plug the vacuum lines to the vacuum advance diaphragm when setting timing.

If I were you, I'd start all over again with that belt.

Thanks for the reply ... My problem is that there is no WHITE mark. I see the red mark on the advance side and then when it moves over to the retard side I get a large space and then a, what looks like a zero, another space and then two hash marks. After that it drops off into the abyss. The whole surface disappears.

"Forrest" wrote in news:kaS2j.65917$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net:

Your TDC is the "zero" mark on the retard side past the group of three. The key here is that the TDC mark is all by itself on the flywheel, no matter what it actually looks like.

You can confirm this with a bent coat hanger or long skinny screwdriver: With the engine turned to be as close as possible to what you think is TDC, remove the #1 spark plug, insert the coat hanger so it touches the piston top, then turn the engine a few degrees either way with a ratchet and 19mm socket. Watch the coat hanger carefully and make sure it doesn't shift on the piston. TDC is the top of the bobbing motion.

By the way, the flywheel will not always be installed when the timing belt is put on. For this reason there is usually a corresponding TDC mark on the crank nose or crank timing belt pulley, so you may want to take off enough parts to check for that. If you have the crank TDC mark, you don't need to do the coat hanger thing.

Well, missed it again. I didn't have a white mark, so thought that one of the marks on the retard side of the zero might have been white 18 years ago and used that one. At least it's running better than it was when it was too far the other way. The distributor would only go so far and ended up being set a degree or so BTDC. I need a new lower timing belt cover and the local Honda dealer has to order it. He said it would take a couple of days. I'll go over there today and order it and hopefully the valves don't cook over the next few days. I guess, since I have to tear it apart again, I ought to replace the camshaft seal behind the sprocket. One silver lining, in a small cloud, is that I replaced the leaking (O) ring on the distributor shaft. The one on it was so cooked that it broke into small pieces that were more like carbon than rubber. Thanks for the help.

"Forrest" wrote in news:mV03j.27638$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net:

If the red one is still red, the white one would have still been white. When one goes the other disappears at the same time.

The paint normally disappears on cars where the marks are on the exposed crank pulley, not the ones where the marks are on the relatively well- protected flywheel.

Severely retarded timing will do more than cook your (expensive) exhaust valves, it will destroy your (expensive) catalytic converter, maybe even to the point of collapsing the (expensive) honeycomb inside and plugging the exhaust.

I would strongly advise parking this thing permanently until you get the belt sorted out. Limit your damage and your expenditures.