I whole-heartedly recommended NOT doing it yourself. Even having the timing belt done at an Acura dealer doesn't necessarily guarantee it'll be done properly... let me share my personal horror story.

My beloved Teg was a remarkably problem-free car for more than 200k kms. Then came time for another routine timing belt replacement. Cost just over $600 Cdn and I was on my merry way... the next week on the highway I noticed the engine was revving funny, as if there wasn't any 'resistance' when I accelerated. Gave it some more gas with no torque at all, then suddenly I heard this awful "clunk" from the engine and looked in my rear-view mirror just in time to see some fist sized hunk of metal bouncing out from underneath. Now the engine was really revving freely and after a touch on the gas (I was going over 120 at the time) the engine unceremoniously siezed. Pulled over, checked under the hood and found shredded belts and a crank pulley that was half-out. She was flat-bedded to the nearest Canadian Tire (I know, I know, not my first choice but nothing else was open during the christmas holidays and I was over 150 kms from home) where they had to replace not only the belts but the crank pulley which had BENT because the bolt had FALLEN OUT! Apparently it wasn't torqued correctly and simply came off, almost taking the pulley with it.

So anywayz, two painful weeks later, without my car to use over the holidays, I went back to the original Acura dealer that did the timing belt and demanded my money back. They wanted some proof and initially only offered a credit for future service; i quietly handed them my bent crank pulley and suggested they go look for the crank bolt which was now highway litter. They eventually apologized for their error and refunded the whole repair plus towing costs I incurred; I haven't set foot in that place again except to buy a replacement trunk insignia some adolescent f*cks had ripped off.

So to make a long story short, torqueing to spec matters. Duh. Teg's not doing any worse for it though at least... almost 300k now and still purring... gotta love em

Eugene