yesterday on my way home from work, my damn timing belt went out (78k miles). i had my baby towed to this shop that does alot of work (mechanical and after market) on my car and they said i should replace my water pump too so i was like ok, do whatever..i jsut want my car back! well i called over there and asked if he could throw in a valve job for me only to find out that when the timing belt went, so did all 4 valves on the first cylinder now keep in mind my fiance and i are going on vacation in 3 days so forking out the cash to fix my timing belt was enough for now! instead of replacing the 4 bent valves etc etc, i thought maybe i should save and go for the ls/vtec conversion?!?! ive heard alot of good things about that and was wondering what everyone else thinks about going that route as well. btw, what are the power gains if i went that way? thanks alot and sorry for it being so long...it feels good to let it all out! im so pissed at my car right now! thanks for all replies and help.