Ok so was driving down the road at around 30 calmly and my*st170*seemed to have a sudden loss of power and felt like it stalled. It then became very jerky and i managed to limp it home. Eml light also came on. At home the car was idling fine and after putting diagnostics a mobile mechanic diagnosed p1383 and p1380 i believe 2 camshaft codes. He thought it was just a sensor but after removing the fault code and turning the engine back on it idled for a while sounded abit rapsy and then cut out. Opened belt cover to see around 7 teeth sheered off. The belt was still fully intact and wasnt slack. I was advised to order new belt kit and asses damage to head if any the next day. Today my mechanic opened the head and fitted belt. Apparently the crankshafts are rotating fine but he is having trouble locking in shaft to correct position which hell continue on tomorrow. My question is how likely is valve damage as my mechanic seems to think there may be no valve damage and what would be the cost of replacing bent valves including fitting new head gasket etc. Any advice would be appreciated
I have a 2002 focus*st170*running milltek sports cat*exhaust, k and n air filter and remap.

 

Interference engine so it may well have done the valves. Also some zetecs when the belt snaps the valves damage the pistons and it makes them smoke after repair.

 

If it was still idling fine I'd say you could have been lucky. I've had a couple of focus at work where the tensioner has broken and the belts been loose or the belts stripped some teeth and was still running but them customers were very lucky. It's always practice to time the engine up and fit a new belt and see if it runs fine and then go from there with a compression test before removing the head

 

Are st170s zetecs as i thought all zetecs were non interference

 

Do you have any idea of labour hours/cost of replacing the valves and repositioning valve guides etc.?

 

Interference, damage most likely. Yeah they are a zetec with VVT and a duratec logo.
I use a ST170 based engine in my escort.

 

By damage do you mean valves or isit likely pistons will be damaged if its just valves ive seen them for about 8 quid a pop online and do you have an idea of what kind of labour ill be looking at to get them changed?

 

We used to rebuild heads and lap in new valves etc ourselves but nowadays it's not labour cost friendly so we literally send the head off to our local engineering shop and it comes back ready done as for costs u can prob go online and price up a new head set and bolts which should come with every gasket u need and timing belt kit and water pump. Then obviously antifreeze etc etc. Labour wise I've no idea what your man charges but at work parts and labour you'd prob not get much change out of ÂŁ800 but my boss charges ÂŁ60 plus vat an hour

 

Ive already got the belt and water pump sorted for 200 fitted as he is a family friend so am i looking at around another Ł400 for valve damage repair etc if there is any

 

due to the nature of the head any work can spriral up in costs, it will be very unlikely you escaped this without it needing extra work, I would prob source either another 2nd hand head which sell for peanuts or a entire engine which I normally sell when I have them for around Ł300, as for locking the camshafts any decent mechanic knows how to do that, exhausts etc your running has nothing to do with it

 

Second hand head for sure. Solid lifters, and new cam buckets are Ł16 each iirc. If you've bent a load of valves you will need new buckets too, mega expensive.

 

Aaah its all just looking like a deeper hole being dug

 

not really as 2nd hand heads go from Ł50-Ł100 plus labour and timing kit etc , or you can buy a tried and tested engine ready to install for Ł300 way less than a head rebuild

 

As my mechanic has already fit belt kit and pump onto this engine and just needs to time up if i get a new head can i use the same belt kit?

 

Also struggling to find a head anywhere st170 heads are looking few and far between

 

if your head has suspected issues why would he already fit the timing kit as thats last thing you do = very odd , but as the kit is new of course it can be re-used

 

Thats the thing at the moment there are no suspected issues with the head as everything is moving and rotating fine so according to him we should put the belt on and see if the car starts o.o
I also thought this was abit of a dodgy way of doing it and so got a written agreement saying basically if he trashes my engine more than its already trashed the costs are on him

 

does not sound like a pro mechanic to me if honest as most would have run specific pressure/gas tests first making sure of no internal damage before even thinking of fitting a timing belt not just spinning it over hoping for the best lol

 

Could spinning it over wreck my engine more?

 

Like steve has tried telling you a decent mechanic would not assume just because a engine spins over its fine they would do specific tests or the whole job would be waste of time and money

 

All we do at work is time the engine up fit a new belt and turn the engine over by hand and if after 2 turns it Dosent lock up then u can start it up as it won't do anymore damage. If it runs mint then happy days, if not then u do a compression test to see what damage if any there is

 

Cheers mate nice to have abit of hope will keep u updated and mechanic should have tried to start by tonight

 

From memory I've counted at least 4 Zetec timing belts I've done where there's been a failure. One of them the tensioner had fallen apart and was running lumpy but re timed with a new belt saved it. One a water pump seized and shredded some teeth off a belt and that ran again with new pump and belt etc. But from experience 100% of all the Zetec heads I've done when a belt snaps while driving its trashed the valves. Sometimes u can be lucky

 

Would u still say the belt has snapped as the belt was still intact on the gears

 

Done two of these at work over the years and neither of them had done any damage. Doesn't mean yours hasn't but I wouldn't take the head off till you've tried it with a belt on.

 

Good advice right there. No offence to anyone else matey but you'd be better to listen to "real mechanics" rather than forum weekend driveway mechanics. Please don't say to your mechanic " but the guys on this forum said" because if he's like any of the guys I know he'll pick up his tools and leave u to it

 

Lol bummer i managed to bend all 8 inlet valves and 2 exhaust valves. All is good with the head now tho just need to put it on the block. Is there a chance of block damage after all of this bearing in mind the head was found to be crack free?

 

Ah gutted for u matey :-( at least she's on the mend now. Would take something pretty serious to damage the block mate like a wayward piston or Conrod or a valve actually breaking and smashing around with the piston but they normally just stick in the piston and smash the head to pieces lol.

 

Pistons etc are ok apparently so hopefully nothing else is damaged..
Do you know how many hours labour your looking at to put the head on and retime the engine etc.?

 

You won't know if the pistons are OK until you get it running. Piston and valve contact can crack the ring lands causing them to smoke.

 

By manually rotating the cams is any piston valve contact not visible