Well, i was pulling away from a stop sign lastnight when my car bucked and then died. I gave it a quick once-over and tried to start it again and realized that the sound i was hearing was my valves hitting my pistons.

I towed it home, and took of the valve cover and the belt seemed fine... however when I turned the motor by hand the valves obviously hit the pistons because it stopped turning. The UP marks on my cam gears are about 30 degrees apart from each other now.

What are the chances that I bent valves since I was probably at less than 2k rpms? What would cause this to happen, tensioner failure or just incorrect installation... or both? What do I risk by resetting the timing belt and doing a compression test?

I guess it's time for a new timing belt tensioner.


Modified by NateTEG95 at 10:53 AM 7/21/2003

 

The tensioner may have failed, or the belt might have been loose. You might have had better chances if your timing belt actually broke...

Anyhow, line it up run and run a compression test. If the compression test ***** it up, then it was already dead.

--
Tom

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NateTEG95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... What are the chances that I bent valves since I was probably at less than 2k rpms? What would cause this to happen, tensioner failure or just incorrect installation... or both? What do I risk by resetting the timing belt and doing a compression test?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I bet you bent your valves. It's not the rpms, it's how many revolutions the motor actually turned after the belt slipped. Even if you turned it by hand... Unless you stopped it within about 1/4 of a turn, you're out of luck.

Put your crank at 90 degrees away from tdc, so NONE of the pistons are at the top. Now you can turn the camshafts any which way you want without fear. Measure your valve lash. Any bent valves will have their lash all screwed up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JimBlake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Unless you stopped it within about 1/4 of a turn, you're out of luck.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for the info. I did stop turning it by hand once there was any resistance and as I remember it wasn't very far at all.. less than 1/4 turn.

So chances are that if any of my valves are bent then all of them are bent, right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NateTEG95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... So chances are that if any of my valves are bent then all of them are bent, right?</TD></TR></TABLE>
If it was only your intake cam that moved, then I suppose only your intake valves got bent. Check the valve lash - I bet that'll tell you which ones are bent before you take off the head.

 

How many miles on the belt? When a timing belt "breaks", it's the teeth that break, not the belt itself. Chances are you bent valves, if the cam timing is off by enough, rpm does not matter, valves hit pistons and bend.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b19coupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How many miles on the belt? When a timing belt "breaks", it's the teeth that break, not the belt itself. Chances are you bent valves, if the cam timing is off by enough, rpm does not matter, valves hit pistons and bend.</TD></TR></TABLE>

10,000 or so miles on the belt.. plus or minus a few hundred. I'll check valve lash tonight. Maybe I'll be lucky.

How much should I expect to pay to have valves put in if I supply the valves?