Snapped Cam Belt on a 414

unfortunatly this IS an interference engine, meaning its very likely that the valves will have made contact with the pistons, depending on how many valves have bent (if any) it may be a cheaper option to source a second hand cylinder head, expect to pay around £8 to £12 per valve if you intend to repair it. steve . Oxford

Thanks someone for your reply.

Its as I suspected, you're right about the second hand head as my local motor factors have quoted £450 to £500 for a reconditioned head and believe or not --- £55 pounds for a head gasket set --b****y hell!!

Forgive any typo's as I am sitting typing this with a rather stiff bourbon at my side to get over the shock :-). My daughter's feeling a little gutted about this as I had warned her to get the belt renewed six months ago, and she tells me she recently had a quote from a garage to do the job and turned it down because she thought the price was too high about a £120 - ah well! live and learn.

Brian G

I'm no expert but from previous posts here, if that is truly the price for just the head, I'd shop around a bit.

My local garage recently did a whole head swop for a bit more than that. You would get additional knowledgable opinion in uk.rec.cars.maitenance E-mail address, hopefully self-explanatory Andy

Thanks Andy,

The estimate for the head was from the local "motor factors" and they seem to have gone a little "upmarket" on their prices since the moved into a brand new building a couple of years ago. Since my initial posting, I have spoken to the owners of my local garage "Newbridge Motors" (a free plug for them) who have given me lots of advice on the K16 engine and have offered to get their "tame" engineer to recondition the head for me at a better price. The news to date on the head is that both exhaust valves on No 1 piston are "stuck" in the down position and no matter what I do, cannot be shifted. So I'm off tomorrow to get me the relevant socket to undo the head bolts, and once that's off, we can make a decision on what's to be done - ah! The joys of parent hood :-). With regards to the cost of the head gasket set (£55) this has been confirmed by the above garage (although they get theirs a little cheaper).

Brian G

£120 is about the going rate for cam-belt replacement. I was quoted the same about 3 months ago and now mine is overdue. I have a 214SEi - it was done in 1999 when it was five years old. It's now, what, 6 years later and I have 88K on the clock. Had full head gasket job in January and all other gaskets too. Should have got it done then but I was struggling for the cash for HG!

Cheers Paul, Wakefield

Paul,

Daughter has the 214 SLi (I made an error with heading of this post) with the K16 petrol engine.

I finally got the head off the car this morning after one hell of a fight with confined spaces, rusted bolts, rounded nuts and many prayers to the god "Brutus Forces" and found 6 bent exhaust valves.

I took the head to a local machine shop specialising in cylinder head repairs, and with a set of 8 exhaust valves, head skim, possibly a few new valve guides, a new set of head bolts, a head gasket kit and the fitting of the valves, the ball park figure is around £250 - £300 (hopefully a bit less). Add to this the new cam belt, a few new studs and nuts, anti-freeze and odds and ends, it's quite a high bill for a belated cam belt change (even with free labour thrown in).

I think daughter has learned her lesson well here - especially as to add insult to injury, she has to go and talk to her "friendly" bank manager on Monday to arrange a nice little overdraft to pay for this.

As a matter of interest, I got talking to the engineer who does the work and he showed me a bl***y great stack of cylinder heads with bent valves as a result of cam belts breaking awaiting repairs - with the profit he must be making, I think I'll retrain as the "head man" :-)

PS. My advice, get your belt changed ASP and avoid the fun. LOL

Brian G

I really hope your daughter appreciates having a dad like you. :-)

E-mail address, hopefully self-explanatory Andy