Xsara broken cambelt - worth it?

[PiperCub]

The £300 Xsara WBOD stripped it's cambelt last night on the way home. Was thinking about quickly stripping the covers, re-timing the engine and throwing another belt on to see how much damage there is. Is this worth the bother or will it be utterly FUBAR as I'm certain the TU engines (this is a 1.4 pez) are like the vast majority of engines - interference. (I know once in a great while if it fails at idle then very rarely you get away with it but this occurred at about 2500rpm). 

Is it worth fucking about with or just call Johnny Scrapman? 

 

EDIT: For those asking "Why didn't you change it in the first place idiot!"  - well, it's a long, boring story but TL:DR, normally I would but I only anticipated keeping the thing about 6 weeks/800 miles not 6+ months/4500 miles as it turned out! I'll post the story if/when I get the replacement I've been trying to get hold of and you'll understand.

[loserone]

EW10 FTW.

[Stinkwheel]

TU 1.4's are still ten a penny in any scrapper still or even on evilBay. Just get another lump and throw it in.

[PiperCub]

^^ It's not worth that much bother! It's not got much MoT left and it'll doubtless need money/time spending & I'm not attached to it at all (nice enough but....). I was just musing  if it was worth trying to keep it going for another month or so until it's replacement shows up that's all. 

[castros_bro]

Take cam cover off and see what's there - should give a quick indication of buggered or not.

[bub2006]

My 1.6 8v picasso was meant to be interference but I chucked a cheap belt on first wishful thinking and it actually ran ok. Luck maybe? Might be worth a gamble if nothing else

[PiperCub]

^^ I was wondering that, that's why I was asking, take a punt for about £12, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, that's life sometimes. Ultimately it only cost £300 & I've spent almost nothing (literally) on it. 

[Stinkwheel]

^^ I was wondering that, that's why I was asking, take a punt for about £12, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, that's life sometimes. Ultimately it only cost £300 & I've spent almost nothing (literally) on it. 

Yeah, I can see what you are saying here. Id definitely pull rocker cover off, if the cam and rockers look ok and none of the valves are sitting weird, then stick a belt on and see what happens. Worth it for 12 quid and a bit of time.

[beko1987]

Would you be interested in a 1.4tu engine with a year old cambelt for £125? Comes in a convenient, easy to transport and with insurance until 03/03 package too...

[PiperCub]

Thanks anyway mate (I like the old ZX's) but no, as I say, I've got something in the offing (hopefully next week) plus a possible standby (TBC). I won't be putting that much energy into a fix. I've not much on next week on my shift days-off so I may have a punt with a new belt after whipping off the cambox as suggested above. 

 

Glad I bought the 'back-up' Honda Bros last year now!!!! (Tomorrow night's work transport). 

[beko1987]

Should net over £100 as scrap, my local ASM have £120 as their lowest price and it sounds the easier option...

[sierraman]

What’s £12. Time it up then fit the new belt it’s hardly a big gamble. I’d not get into swapping engines, it’s not just an £100 engine swap, if you are going to that trouble of hoying the engine out you might as well stick a clutch in, new timing belt, fresh fluids, various bits and and bats along the way you find. It all adds up time and money wise. If it’s an old beater you probably can’t be arsed to put all that in unless it’s a keeper. 

[jonathan_dyane]

Very easy job to throw another cylinder head on these...

[beko1987]

The cambelt slipped on my Xantia whilst I was doing 50ish at probably the same rpm (aux belt snapped and nommed it). I coasted off the road, then started it again... (plumes of white smoke where the fuel pump was out of time) to get further to a quiet spot and got home via a flatbed. 

New belts and a retime and it was fine! Probably more luck than anything, it was a tad noisier than before but ran fine, and ran for another 10ish months before putting a rod through the block for its new owner (who luckily shares a workshop with @CYANIDE STEVE and bought it as a donor for his white xantia) so I'm in the stick a belt on, time it up and see crowd. Film the first startup too...

@KruJoe (or will, can't remember now, but a brutha_veg) kindly spent a few hours on the phone with me talking me through it, I learnt alot! 

[Arthur Foxhake]

On 2/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, beko1987 said:

Should net over £100 as scrap, my local ASM have £120 as their lowest price and it sounds the easier option...

Try cartakeback as opposed to ASM direct.

I generally get a better price from cartakeback and ASM pick it up anyway as they're the most local to us.

[PiperCub]

Checked the top end today, pulled the cam cover, three out of four exhaust valves bent plus possibly one or two inlet. So that's FUBAR then, with MoT upcoming it's a journey to the bridge. The best offer I got was a quote of £104 from a local place (I've used before) which is pretty good. As said above repairing plus MoT work makes no financial (or time) sense and I'm finally picking up the long awaited replacement daily on Monday (in theory anyway).

Spent the afternoon pulling off a few bits (fuses, bulbs, relays) and salvaging the toolkit in it's natty box plus testing the battery revealed it to be in excellent shape so that's staying too (I put a knackered one I had in to get shot of it) & a rego plate for my workshop wall! Threw the engine plastic covers back on too. I shall also drain some of the gas as it still has about half a tank and I'm way too mean to let that go!!!!

The only downside was having to go to work in the wind and rain on the Honda as I'm on night shift but that wasn't a drama though tomorrow morning will be pretty windy. 

[beko1987]

4 hours ago, Arthur Foxhake said:

Try cartakeback as opposed to ASM direct.

I generally get a better price from cartakeback and ASM pick it up anyway as they're the most local to us.

Interesting to know. Asm is 1.8 miles from me though so it's a quick job before work usually, nice and quick. They've had 3 cars of mine now