oh $hit is all i can say!!!!

i replaced the timing belts and tensioners + roller & water pump on one of my mates cars yesterday. and he's just bought it round to me cos it's not running very nice (his words not mine). i've had a look and it seems that the timing belt has jumped about 4 teeth out....

and before anybody says it. yes i did check it all and i did turn it over by hand first.

consequently it has probably clipped all the inlet valves.

looks like it's a head-off job tomorrow then(or this evening).

Pitfalls of trying to do someone a favour I'm afraid.

Opps.

Belts dont normally just 'jump' on thier own, must be something wrong (tensioner not done up correctly etc). Did you do both belts?

yes i did both belts, both tensioners, and the idle roller as well.

i've investigated it a bit further now, and it seems that the upper tensioner(the one between the cams) has broken. i think i'm going down to where he bought the parts tomorrow and see what they say about it. these parts should have a waranty shouldn't they even though it was non-genuiune??? maybe they can pay for a new set of valves and head gasket kit and head bolts.

fortunately i've got a spare cylinder head for one of these kicking around in my shed.

I reckon you'll have a battle on to prove the parts at fault, doubt they'll just roll over.

Them top tensioners are an @rse to get in but dont normally break once replaced.

I reckon you'll have a battle on to prove the parts at fault, doubt they'll just roll over.

i buy an aweful lot from that particular motor factor (not mentioning names) so i doubt if there will be any trouble. they've allways looked after me in the past.

fixed it all now, took the head off for no reason though. there were no clipped valves or anything. better to be safe than sorry i say. i reseated them all while i was there too, this was necessary because the guys been running it on LRP for a short while and some of the exhuast valve seats were a bit pitted. it's running better now than it has for a long time.

did the motor factor give you some free parts , head gasket etc , when you returned with the broken/faulty tensioner ?

yes, they replaced the timing belts and tensioners for free. which i expected them to do anyway! and they met me half way with the cost of the head gasket set and head bolts.

Winner then, glad everything worked out in the end.