Automotive : So your car's cambelt has snapped....

A car's cambelt snapping in generally perceived to be a catastrophic event. My first experience of this was recent and on my first car a Vauxhall Zafira (model A) holding a million pound of sentimental value. Faced with some biting reality from the RAC recovery service individual, its time to scrap this car and a validation from my usual mechanic who's advice was to let it go now. With 144K miles on the clock it probably was time for it to take a rest and the time to let it go.

We solved the need for a new car pretty quickly so then it became a question on whether to tackle the engine on the Zafira and let it live on.

Cambelt snaps are fatal (on certain/interference engines) as the internals of the engines get out of syncronisation because the belt that keeps them in sync breaks and essentially crushes/ breaks / bends the internals and this renders the engine useless. While this is not an educational post of how to fix things this is a post on how it's possible to salvage this situation with a bit of determination, the ability to learn, patience and hard work.

My general approach was to take the car apart bit by bit and recondition the top of the engine. Steps to do this are usually described in car manual, youtube videos and online resources. But his blog post was to show how easy it is to do, some of the problems you encounter and potential costs

How I took the car apart.

To get to the cylinder head you need to take apart the air intake, the timing belt mechanism, exhaust manifold, injectors, inlet manifold. Finally you will need to pull off the cylinder head gasket.
I would advise making lots of videos and pictures of all the things you remove so you remove how to put them back on.

Top of the engine (Z16XE)

The cambelt end of the engine

A well used cylinder head (after 144,000 miles)

Using a valve compressor to take the engine apart

A valve collett - a small retainer that keeps he valve in place inside the engine

A bent valve from inside the engine - this is the damage that happens when a timing belt breaks

something beyond the normal mechanic - a bent/cracked valve guide. these have to be done by a specialist 

Keep the bits separated - so that each piece goes back in the same place it came out from

I used old envelopes to organise the parts I took off the engine

the bottom end of the engine with the cylinder - before a clean

The bottom end of the engine after a clean

What did it cost me ?

The quote from the garage was in the region of GBP900. It cost me about 350 in parts I made some mistakes ordering for the wrong engine so I ended up spending about 60 pounds more than I should have. I had to buy a bunch of tools to get the job done the tools cost about 150. It took me a lot of hours about 12 of then grinding 16 valves into position.

The pitfalls.

Tightening bolts on a old engine tends to be a difficult and inevitably you tend to break them ! these are costly to drill out and no matter the videos on youtube inevitable I didnt not have the skills to do it and these complex jobs had to go to a machine shop.

Sheared bolts - that will cost you 25 to drill out

The lessons learnt from this was if the manual says use new bolts or screws or parts just do it !

Is it worth doing it ? That really depends on your ability and qualities that I outlined about. If you have those in abundance you can do it.