corsa 16v cam belt broke

[pebbles36]

Hi, my timing belt snapped last night on my corsa 1.6 sport last night and due to being rather skint i cannot afford to take it to a garage to get done so was wondering if it is worth tackling the job myself, i do have some mechanical knowledge but is it just best really to leave it to the experts???

Thanks

 

[stuartinlancashire]

I'd suggest this one best left to someone who knows what they are doing. Unless you are lucky there will probably be more damage than just a snapped belt.

 

[pebbles36]

Hi Stuart, i guess i have bent some of the valves but was really wondering is it really that hard to take the head off and sort the valves out, i have read the haynes manual and it seems a long progress to sort it out but is it something that can be tackled at home by a semi-mechanic??

 

[KingboyD]

TBH I would leave this to someone who knows what they are doing

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

You need to find out whether your particular engine is 'safe'. What that means is that some engines will not suffer any damage should the cambelt snap. This is because the lowest point that the valves reach in their operation is above the upper point that the cylinder reaches in its operation and, hence, no mechanical contact between these components takes place. Unfortunately, I think these engines tend to be in the minority these days, with the prevailing demands for greater effifciency and more power etc.

In a bad case the engine damage can be severe, as contact with the piston and cylinder walls can occur.

It might be worth enquiring on some of the Vauxhall websites where there should be appropriate info confirming or denying the cam-damage issue. Good luck. Prefer chains meself, but I suppose that's obvious.

 

[pebbles36]

Thxs for the info chainsaw about 'safe' engines, do you know of any particular website forum at all???? I am thinking at what Kingboy has said and best leave to someone who knows what they are doing but as i said low on funds and would like to attempt it myself.

Thanks everyone who has taken the time out to give me there advice

 

[stuartinlancashire]

Try this forum

 

[pebbles36]

Thanks for that link to the forum stuart very interesting site

 

[davedasave]

it is an interference engine meaning that the pistons would have hit the valves when the belt broke, how many and how bad all depends on the speed the engine was doing

i've had many jobs where cambelts break and every time i just fit a new belt 1st to see if there is any other damage and 99% of interference engines do damage valves

if you have read the haynes manual with regards to removing the head and feel confident enough i would suggest doing it, the downside of you doing it is tooling, to remove the valves you will need a valve spring compresser. removing the head is the easy part, the difficult part is timing it back up again, but if you have read the haynes manual on this as well and understand it then give it a shot, you can't do any more damage, and you might learn something!