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(85 740 GLE, non-Turbo) Timing Belt Break - Chances Of Engine Damage

To All,

I have a 1985 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan (non-turbo) with approximately

228,000 miles. My son was driving it last weekend, going around 35 mph, when all of a sudden he lost power and the engine stopped. He did not notice any unusual or loud noise. He coasted into a parking lot. Later we took a look. The car made a high whiney sound when attempting to start it. There was no knocking or any sound of friction coming from the engine.

So we had it towed to a mechanic who informed us the timing belt broke. They will not be able to assess possible engine damage until they replace the timing belt. Now my questions:

(1) In your experience with Volvo's, particularly my model, what are the chances of significant engine damage resulting from a timing belt breaking while driving the car?

(2) Did attempting to start the car afterwards possibly cause damage?

(3) What kind of damage might you expect based on the symptoms described above?

Your help and responses will be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

DevoFan Fargo, ND

Reply to
DevoFan
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It's a non interference engine, from the posts I have read it's basically you get a new belt, make sure all the timing marks are lines up and whatnot... whatever is involved (I've never done it, just read it many time) then you are good to go again.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

Hi Rob,

thank you for the information, especially the good news that it is a "non-interference" engine.

Regards

DevoFan

Reply to
DevoFan

Just have your mechanic install a new timing belt & away you go ( Of course have him line up the timing marks 1st) Glenn

Reply to
G Klein

Everybody keeps telling me that B230 is non-interference but in my experience that is not true. My 88 240GL with a B230F suffered so much damage when the timing belt broke that the mechanic advised me to junk it. It was running beautifully prior to that.

Reply to
Duong Nguyen

Maybe you had a weird cam in it? I've rotated the cam 360 degrees with the crank at top dead center and none of the valves hit, that was an '87 though.

Reply to
James Sweet

If the head had been machined too much, that could possibly allow it to hit a piston... but other than that (and the weird cam option posted earlier) it shouldn't hit.

Tony

Reply to
Anthony Flint

Was it really a B230F?

At least before leaded gas was banned Australia got the B230ET, and so I assume the B230E. Perhaps your mechanic didn't even bother to look at the car, and just wrote it off. The E engines got higher compression pistons and hotter cams, both of which could easily be non interference from the factory.. but with carbon deposits or head milling could easily become interference engines.

I know for a fact that the B21FT and B230FT engines are not interference engines. I've rotated the cam on mine many times with the crank far out of tune, etc.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo '84 245 Turbo

Reply to
Alex Zepeda

It was definitely a B230F. No modification that I know of. As for the mechanic I dont't really know. Wouldn't do his reputation any good if I found though.

Reply to
Duong Nguyen

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