Gear cover on engine

[kingdomracing]

I was told by my body man today that I needed to find the cover for my 1.6L SOHC crx engine. I guess you would call that cover the timing belt cover. Do I really have to have that cover? Is it dangerous to drive the vehicle without it?

any info would be great....


thanks.

 

[Jeef]

I did not have one on my old civic for 4 years and had no problems. BUT my friend who also didn't have one wasn't so lucky. A mouse had gotten into his enigne and fell in the hole. One morning he went out to his car and it wouldn't start. We tried to fix it and noticed his cam gear had slipped. I broke a rachet trying to crank the engine over on the crank pulley. He brought it to the shop and they found the mouse caught between the timing belt and the crank pulley. The timing belt skipped a tooth and he had a new belt put on. The car ran like shit, 8 months later he had to put a new engine in. Hey I got a free y8 out of it to fuck around with.