I have to do a cambelt and water pump change on my wife's 1993 216 with DOHC D16 engine. I've got little or no experience with these engines other than routine servicing as most of my work has been on T series engines in 820s - so I'm after any tips that you may have.

I've got the workshop manuals and it looks reasonably straight forward, but I'm sure that there will be some nasty gotcha in there (especially as it's a Honda engine). Other than the stupidly tight crank pulley bolt, of course!

I've not done one, but the good thing to know is that they are a safe engine!

That at least reduces the risk of me killing it, then!

They straight forward really.just make sure the cams dont move and the tensioner should be ok too but it's probably best to change it any way,all simple really but that bottom pulley bolt ,good luck.

Thanks - I'll post up pictures when I've done it.

Is the dohc engine not an interferance fit engine. the best bet for the crank bolt is to take the flywheel cover off and get a prybar in there, my advice is just get it to top dead and then mark the 3 pullys as long as it goes back lile that u cant go wrong. just had a look in the rover manual, and it has a locking tool for the flywheel http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=28899 something like this one, but its a touch on the expensive side. good luck Mark

Its easy. There is a hole in each cam at the front so you can drop a drill bit or punch in. TDC mark on crank pulley. Just make sure its sitting nicely and not to
slack between the cam sprockets. Getting the bolt undone on the bottom pulleys worst job its really tight.

Agree with Roverman, Richard.
The tensioner is the weak link on the cambelt assembly. You can see the condition of the belt with the cover off - so it's easy to check for wear. The tensioner is worth changing for real peace of mind. They go without warning. The pulleys and spring tensioner kits come up quite regularly on eBay - but they're not that much anyway.

And Stubby sums it up nicely with the timing. Screwdrivers are ideal. And....you get arrows, dots and notches on the pulleys to help you see. I have to struggle sometimes to get the strobe at the right angle to check the timing. A drop of Tippex is good on the flywheel to make it clearer.

Not so sure why Honda engines are treated with so much suspicion. I find the D16 very forgiving - and it goes together well.

Good luck with it. I'm sure you'll find it a satisfying job to do.

I finally got round to this on sunday. I won't go through a full "How To", just a few tips and pointers.

To improve access I removed the PAS pump and its bracket, but l eft the hoses attached and just pulled the pump out of the way. The expansion tank was removed and the bottom radiator hose removed to drain the coolant - I was replacing the water pump so needed the coolant draining out, anyway.

First, the crank pulley bolt. I ended up (after trying several methods) rounding off the end of a long Allen key and jamming it into one of the holes in the crank pulley. Once that was in, I was able to wedge it against the chassis rail and attack the 17mm crank bolt with my breaker bar. In the end I had to hold onto the bumper and push with my foot - but it got there. The same technique was used for tightening. I tried a bolt first time but that just bent but the Allen key is more rigid.



Take care when pulling off the pulley - I found that the "woodruff" key on the crankshaft came out easily and could have dropped out. I removed it from the crankshaft and taped it to the pulley for safe keeping. Sorry about the lousy photo (autofocus camera looking at the wrong thing). :



Before removing the belt I removed the cam cover and locked the camshafts with another couple of Allen keys. To be honest, the cams didn't feel as if they were going to move anyway:



Then I removed the lower timing cover and took off the lower cambelt guide washer behind the pulley - it's dished so you need to note which way round it goes for re-fitting (it curves outwards, for reference). I then released the tensioner bolt (14mm), drew the tensioner down and re-tightened the bolt. After removing the belt I removed the tensioner completely in order to get better access to the water pump. The tensioner felt very smooth so I took a chance and re-used it (the car doesn't do much mileage, just 5,000 per year on average):




To get better access to the water pump (which I was changing on a "just in case basis") I removed the upper engine mount (2 x 14mm bolt, the upper one of which is partially hidden) - but the cam pulleys have to come off first (12mm bolts I think) and each of those has a small, easy to lose woodruff key. The engine was supported under the sump with a trolley jack and block of wood:






After the mount has been removed, disconnect the alternator bracket from the water pump (14mm bolt) and then the pump can come off (4 x 10mm bolt) - 2 at the top and another 2 at the bottom. The water pump bearing felt really "gritty" so I'm glad I decided to change it:



Putting it back together was just, as the Haynes manual says, the reverse of removal. The new cam belt was noticeably more tight than the old one. I took the chance to fit new PAS and alternator belts and also do an oil change. As always, I turned the engine over by hand a few times to make sure that it felt OK before attempting to start it. I reckon that I took about 5 hours all told but that would be a lot quicker next time (if there was a next time!).

good guide, maybe it'll encourage people to have a go themselves rather than paying a garage to do it. wonder if it would be an idea to have a "how to" section on the forum for stuff like this.