I bought a 99.5 1.8T about a week and a half ago and posted a couple of questions in the new member area. Basically, I bought the car knowing that the timing beltspun with the idea I would pull the engine and replace parts as necessary. I pulled the head, which looked as expected, and sent it to the a machine shop. Turns out 16 of the 20 valves are bent but fortunately the head can be fixed. Now, in order to bend 16 valves there has to have been quite a bit of pressure on the pistons. The pistons are marked up from the valves but nothing that I'm too worried about. Careful smoothing of the rough areas is probably enough however, what do you guys think of the lower end? How much of a risk am I taking by not inspecting the rods and bearings?

As you can guess, I didn't pull the engine. I searched the forums and haven't found any threads regarding lower end damage resulting from a timing belt failure. When the belt gives Inoticed that everyone just gets the head rebuilt or replaced. I'm not concerned over the work involved just the cost. I know that sounds pretty lame but when a piston and rod kit is $1500 (not counting clutch and other parts) my expense is getting up there. Are the rods something I should worry about?


Thanks!!!

 

how did it break, was it being drivin? assuming so, lol
thats a lot of valve damage
you can pull your oil pan, and take a peek, but for the most part, i have seen just head damage, since when it snaped its not running, with no oil pressure, KWIM
i would say, not looking, your odds are proably pretty good

 

o man people and there tbelts breaking. must be the new fad

 

My neighbor, the guy I bought it from, says he was doing about 45mph when it went and he said he wasn't on it. The exhaust valves hit the most but I understand they are sodium filled and may bend easier than solid. I'm reaching here so if I'm off base let me know.

I may have to pull the pan, as suggested, and take a look. At the very least, I can look to see if there's any presence of sludge. Will the pan come off without lifting the engine?

 

yes, you will have to "lift" the engine
as far as you can without pulling on hoses too badly
it will be kinda a pain
but could save you time.

 

If there was a sludge problem it would be evident in the valvetrain. There wouldn't be bearing damage from a snapped timing beltbut couldit is possible there was damage to the bearings before the belt snapped.If you do plan on doing any mods past 300 chp now would be a good time for new rods, bearings and possibly pistons.

 

^^^ what he said, good idea

 

Thanks so much. Guess I'll pull the pan and check the lower end. I suppose I could take out the rods and rering the pistons at that point. At least I'll have a better idea of what has happened, if anything.

 

I decided to leave the bottom end alone and simply install the rebuilt head. I have to say, of all the cars I've worked on this is the easiest. The installation went very smoothly except for a bonehead move on my part with the timing chain gear on the cam. I put it on backwards and had rotated the engine a couple of times by hand when I realized that the belt didn't sit right. Funny thing is there's a timing mark on the backside of the gear which threw me off. Apparently, reversing the gearmay be acommonmistake so the engineers put marks on both sides in case someone like me putsit on wrong. I was sweating it out though. Rebuilding the head was $1500 due to the cost ofnew TRW valves and I certainly didn't wantto damage anything.

I reversed the gear and installed the rest of the parts and voila! The car started right away. It runs very smoothly and I was surprised how much power it has for such a small engine. Total cost of repairs was $2100 and along with the price of the car I'm pretty happy.

 

That would of made a good DIY/success story for anyone who comes across that same problem. Good to hear it all worked out for you though, with minimal problems.