Laguna 1.6 s reg - cam belt - how dead

it will be scrap

Hmm, been looking at this objectively - and trying to justify scrap or diy fix.. Its S reg, new mot, good body, 4 good tyres, 2 new wheelbearing, cracked windscreen - the going rate seems to be about £600-£800 - it would certainly be worth that to me running. I might get £200 scrap or ebay spares/repairs

On the other hand - assuming belt £30 head gasket- £36 water pump - £70 head rebuild - £100?

it seems like saving. Got it stripped to cams at mo - bottom cam cover seems a bugger to get off. Water pump seems to be at other end of engine, not driven off cam, so prob ok? I reckon head gasket and timing thrown out by bloke who tried to look at gasket leak by removing cam cover.

is head off, replace , retime much of a job? Haynes suggest special timing tools and techniques, is it that bad?

Else anyone know a good source of renault engines - might be quicker an cheaper just to bung in a 'good un'.

Cheers

I strongly suggest that you get a more realistic price for this before you spend any more time or money on it.

Bear in mind that you would still have to budget for the cost and hassle of replacing the cam belt on a used engine at the very least.

Chris

I'm hoping that as it died at 10mph at 1,000 revs with zero noise that any damage may be limited to a couple of valves at most ;-) But of course thats wishful thinking.

Am I right in thinking that if I get the crank into a position where none of the pistons is tdc and manually press each valve stem I can get an idea of how bad the damage is, ie if most operate full range of motion and a couple are sticky I'll know where I stand?

What is a head rejuvvy cost?

Yes, true. Anyone got any idea what the going rate is for the job at a garage?

Very. Damage in these situations rarely relates to engine revs; in fact, they mostly seem to break at lower speeds.

That might identify the most bent valves, but will tell you little else.

More than 100 quid ;-)

Define garage. Dealer? Independent? Where in the country?

Autodata reckons it's a 2.5 hour job; cheapest rates around here are perhaps 50UKP/hr, so 125UKP + cambelt kit as a minimum.

TBH, if you are looking at paying someone to do the cambelt, it's unlikely you will be able to do an engine swap yourself, and if you pay someone to do that for your it will be completely uneconomic.

As ever, Mr C is likely to be right; it's probably scrap, sadly.

Chris

Nope.

Well the heads probably fine, but unless you take it off you won't know, the valves are about £6 each.

FAI do them, about £15 a set.

I live in the Midlands, so some very cheap local garages -can probably get an engine chucked in for less than £100 labour. Example - rear wheel bearing for said car fitted, £70 incl parts and labour and vat. - I did the other one the month before, it was a bitch and the bearing cost me £60 from a cheap motor factors!

If it was rear wheel drive I'd do it myself - I've never done front apart from a mini, a lot of years ago. I can probably do the cambelt, headgasket etc myself, I'm fairly technical, but the fiddlyness of getting to it and special tools need puts me off - and I don't fancy the open chequebook of 'strip this down and tell me what it needs' - at least if I part strip and inspect I can make a judgement based on that.

It just seems stupid that to buy the same car with working engine would cost me £700 - to buy an unknown..in fact there's an almost identical one on Ebay for a grand right now - the wife's had this two years, it may well be worth investing a few quid into it - at worst I could sell it for £700.. hmm...choices.

Ah, that puts a whole new light on it - last car I took the head off was a 24v senator and valves were something stupid like £80 each!

Handful of valves on this then are cheapest part of a rebuild.. Sod it, I'll whip the head off and take a look.

Oh, it doesn't need special head bolts does it - the senator need special ones at £12 each or something crazy!