Heres the story. I drove to work to pick up some things I had forgotten from the night before. I left my car idling in the parking lot outside...no big deal, or so I thought. I came back out about 5 minutes later to find the engine no longer running. I sat down in the drivers seat and smelled burning rubber.

I popped the hood to find the timing belt shredded. Not shredded as in a few teeth were missing, or it had snapped in several places. It was completely and utterly destroyed. Bits of melted rubber were stuck inside the engine bay, and there was no sign of the majority of the belt.

Okay, so what kind of damage am I looking at here? Its hovering right around zero here in Ames, IA, so I want to know what kind of a fix I'm in before I go over there and start tearing things apart.

Thanks guys,
Justin

 

Well it might have shutoff before any damage was done, you might be lucky. Damage can be bent valves, valve shot through a piston, head damage, etc.

 

What engine?

If a D15B1 or D15B2, you didn't damage anything because they are non-interference engines.

Most popular swaps are intereference engines and will likely have bent the valves.

Do you have timing covers on the engine?

 

well what engine are you runnin cause alot of the single cams are non interfearin engines.... (d16a6)i've revved my car to bout 5k and broke one and kept try to coast start it and crank start it not know what happened and put a belt on it and drove it for another 2 years and put the engine in a four door and sold it and its still runnin in ohio somewhere....

 

I have a D15B2. I did not have a timing belt cover...could that have been the problem?

 

your probably good to go then it probably didn't hurt anything jus got outta time and shut off i ran my a6 without a tie cover on the bottom or top for a long time without problems(not a good idea there there for a reason) cause i had to cut mine off..... just get a new timing belt and put it on should be good to go...and there not expensive...

 

You didn't bend any valves then. Put a new belt on and go. Make sure to set the cam timing correctly. I recommend replacing the water pump while you're in there if it's near due (8 years or 105,000 miles for timing belts and water pumps). Replace the belt tensioner if it is noisy or broken.

The timing belt covers are there for a reason.

That's not to say that the belt was definitely damaged by contact from a foreign object, but it's certainly a lot more likely.

 

Are you sure about that?
My D15B2 bent two valves when the belt broke..

Napa's site list 2 belts for my application:
PBH TX143 Belt - Camshaft / Timing 1 0.00 51.98
Comment: Interference Engine
NBH 250143
Belt - Camshaft / Timing 1 1.00 61.45
Comment: Interference Engine

Gates website lists it as an interference engine as well:
http://www.gates.com/part_locator/in...cation_id=3598
Cam. Belt
Automotive Timing Belt T143 Interference engine application

 

<shrug> We've never had a broken D15B2 belt in our shop that bent valves. Every single one ran perfect with just a belt & pump replacement.

The Gates site also lists the A20A from '86-89 Accords as an interference engine, and I know they're wrong about that.

 

I've seen bent valves on two D15B2's and one D16A6 from timing belt failures. I did the diag, tear down, and resulting engine swap on all. I think D15B2's are barely interference engines though, one of my friends has popped belts on two different engines with no bent valves. One at 35mph and repeated pop-start attempts and another where the water pump seized, then the pulley sheared off, at 80mph.

You might be lucky, the easiest way to check is just to put the new belt in and do a compression test. You might also be able to look through the spark plug hole at the piston tops to check for valve marks.

It sounds like you're not running a timing cover, you should really put one on.