83 Civic: How can I tell if my valves are bent?

I have an 83 Civic whose timing belt broke recently. Last week, I asked for
some advice regarding my problem and received some great help. Today, I
started the process of changing it. I will be pulling the crankshaft pulley
tomorrow. However, I recently found out that this car has a interference
engine and that my valves may have been damaged. Is there any way I can
tell if the valves are bent or my pistons damaged without taking the heads
off? I have limited time and I know that taking the heads off will mean a
lot more time for me to complete the job. Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks, Andrew Browne-Kondo

 

If the timing belt broke, then it's likely that your engine may have bent
valves. You can check the valve clearances to look for bent valves as they
will not seat all the way so the clearance will be rather large.

Eric

 

A simple compression check should tell you.

 

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Andrew,

after removing the plugs, carefully, by hand, set the pistons so they're
all half-way down, then use a wrench to set the cam to the '0' position,
or the 180 position. Check (half) the valve clearances and see if
they're fairly close. Flip it over and check the other half. If they're
WAY LARGE clearances, the valves are bent and so they don't close flat.

Of course you can't do a compression test without replacing the belt, so
don't go there. You can determine if the valves are wrecked before you
even bother to pull the crankshaft pulley.

'Curly'