timing belt self destructed - Page 2

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

I'll take it off your hands for $200.

scheistermeiste · 11-22-2004, 06:46 AM

i have a car with a good motor that i would give up for $700

nynor · 11-22-2004, 06:56 AM

bryan, for an extra $50, you can have one of the kids...

nynor · 11-22-2004, 06:57 AM

someone on the parts forum offered to sell me a useable head for $125. i may just do that. have it resurfaced, throw it on.

nynor · 11-22-2004, 10:20 AM

all righty guys and gals... i did my best, well within recommeded specs, per clarks garage. only 25K on the belts and 2 1/2 years old. supposed to last 45K. what else can i do. proper tension, proper checks. if anyone killed a kitten it was porschegod.

jm951 · 11-22-2004, 03:31 PM

I seriously beg to differ with those who say a compression check is a waste of time. The very least it will tell you is WHICH cylinder has bent valves so you don't necessarily have to do the entire head. I used to be a professional wrench, and as a courtesy to the garage customers who had this misfortune, we ALWAYS did a compression check. That was for several reasons-

1- You MIGHT get lucky and not bend anything
2- If not, you can quickly establish which cyl have damage
3- It also serves as legal documentation on the work order

I'd say to check it out, if you do have bent valves (nearly certain) then fix what's wrong and keep on driving. If you weight the value of a car against cost of repairs, you'd be ditching a lot of cars. To accurately make that type of comparison, you need to factor in the cost of another car, along with any potential repairs to make it reliable or bring it up to current maintenance. Doing a $1k head repair makes complete sense on these cars in this light. It's way cheaper than car payments every month and the depreciation of the vehicle that is inevitable on anything newer. These cars are likely at the bottom of that financial cycle. Think this thing through carefully before you make any decisions.

ae1969 · 11-22-2004, 03:50 PM

nynor check your waterpump and the other rollers as well. More than likely one of them seized and stripped some teeth of the belt.

I dont think its worth doing a compression test on these cars. If you havent identified the cause you are just asking for more damage. A leak down test will give you similar results with less chance of further damage.

Either way the head needs to be checked out for possible cracks. The bent valves more than likely left some nice dings on the piston heads........... Once you pull the head it becomes pretty obvious which ones got smacked....

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

Did you take any pics, nynor?

nynor · 11-22-2004, 04:22 PM

no pics yet. they are coming. i was quoted a good price for a rebuilt head, from a source i trust. so i think i am going that route. i have barely started the teardown. getting belts off still. i only had about 30 minutes to work on it today. tomorrow, however, it will be in the garage and work will start in earnest. i'll have pics of that. i am pretty certain i am going to find a foreign object down by the crank, as the closer the belt is to the crank, the worse the damage seems. water pump is fine and spins freely. no worries there.

SoCal Driver · SoCal Driver's Garage

Welcome to the Order Of The Bend Valve!

nynor · 11-23-2004, 06:18 PM

well, here it is, folks:

got all the belts out, etc. found that teeth were partially removed for about 3/4 of the belt. the teeth around the crank were completely missing. also, a strange strip missing from the front side. a black plastic piece fell out on the ground. my theory is that a plastic piece, brittle as hell, broke from the engine side of the timing cover. said plastic piece then wedged itself in the seam of the timing cover and partially sheared some teeth before becoming completely wedged and jamming the belt. are you still with me here?

the teeth around the cam sprocket were untouched, perfect even. this implies that the belt didn't even make it around the circuit once after becoming jammed. all pulleys, tensioning sprockets spin fine, including the water pump. the balance belt is PERFECT, not even a nick. no oil on belts, clean as a polished brass whistle. just some damn bad karma, or something.

ae1969 · 11-23-2004, 06:52 PM

Uhmmmm show us some pics of the aftermath...

I think the plastic piece is the casualty of something else.....

THAT belt is pretty tough...... a piece of plastic would not hurt it. But some rollers sure would.

The belt may have skipped due to the plastic piece...... Piston slams a couple of valves and the bottom of the engine turns a bit more to shear off the teeth from the belt.

Show us some pics

<--- sadistic

nynor · 11-23-2004, 06:59 PM

oh, i think this piece of plastic did it all right. there is nothing else. the belt was nice and tight. also, the bits that were cut from the belt are suspiciously close in shap and size the piece of plastic. plus, imagine that the bit of plastic is WEDGED against the timing cover and belt... i can totally see it. everything else looks exactly as it should.