TIMING BELTS IN INTERFERENCE ENGINES

[denguy]

A list of cars that will have a problem if the timing belt breaks.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/timing_belts_interference_engines.htm

[georgeb]

It only goes to 1995.

[FestYboy]

thought the 1.8L Elantra was the BP... which is non-interference...

[niccage]

LOL an expensive lesson learnt with my 1.8 Land Rover Freelander (2000 model, 4 cylinder DOHC, manual) my other car a few months ago. About 6 months ago, I bought a second hand one pretty cheap as the older owner complained it was overheating. So i bought it cheap and decided to replace the head gasket myself and everything else along the way, timing belt, all the seals and gaskets, the water pump, the head bolts, etc.

Anyways, all was going well, i had the timing set correctly but this being my first stint at a major car project (I'm a DIYer not a mechanic but recently have realised how fun it can be to fix things oneself). Anyways, i was feeling good, i had the timing set correctly on the double cam timing belt as well as the crank pulley. But what happened was that the timing belt jumped two or 3 teeth when i removed the locking tab between the 2 cam pulleys, and i started it up, and guess what, it started and ran for about 4 seconds until i heard quite a large "boom" in the engine bay then died. From then on no more starting up, it cranked over as much as you wanted it to but no starts. I had a compression tested and tested each of the 4 cylinders for compression, 2 out of the 4 cylinders had abnormal and insufficient compression. My verdict : that my actions in not correcting the timing and proceeding to start it up made the valves smashed by pistons. I ordered all new valves both exhaust and inlet and removed the head, took it for machining to a shop and gave them all the new valves which they replaced, came back i put it all back together, set the timing belt correctly, double checked all was correct, triple checked all was correct, turned the engine over by hand several times to see that the timing points on the camshafts and the crank pulley end up aligned and they did. I started her up and voilla, up she fires! Although it meant more time out, I'm actually glad it happened because that's how we learn which life is all about. If we didn't make mistakes, if things didn't go wrong, etc, imagine all that learning and experience we'd be missing out on! Actually after changing and setting the timing on my Rover double overhead camshaft timing belt, doing the 99 Festiva timing belt a few days ago was a piece of cake, the single over head cam belt is so simple it ain't funny!