Place your bets - how many bent valves?

Out in the Octavia (1.8i, 20v) this PM. Doing 80-90 on the motorway (that'll be indicated speed, not actual. Officer). Pulled off after 15 miles, heard a slight squealing noise, and sudden loss of power for a second. Strange. A mile long straight followed, no problem, then turned off to

30mph roads with humps. Every time I slowed down, there was a squealing sound. Pulled over, engine idling, nothing looked out of place, but there was a rattling/slight squeal from the upper cam cover area. I put it down to a slipping ancillary belt, or failing air-con drive, so turned off the air con. Go to pull off, then the engine dies after 20 feet or so. Just enough momentum to get to the verge. Strange. Try to start it, sounds a bit funny. OK, have a look again. Shite - cambelt showing through the cover. Further poking shows that the belt may still be in one piece, so it looks like an idler or tensioner has failed, allowing the belt to come off the gears.

So - how many valves are bent? My first guess is at least 10. The recovery man said all 20. Any other guesses?

(oh, and has anyone got a 1.8 20v Skoda head for sale?) Alan

Reply to
A.Lee
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Alan,

An interesting problem to sort out eh?

For the head, I've used this company for used Daewoo spares

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and foun them to be very good on cost (saved me £350) and delivery (next day in my case) - yes they have a listing for Skoda. :-)

Brian G

Reply to
BRG

You may need to narrow it down when you go looking as there were about 20,000 different derivations of that engine (ok that's slightly not true, but think at least 4 different heads, and another 4 or 8 blocks that don't all go together).

Reply to
Depresion

Yes bad news indeed :-( But does it really matter how many? Head still has to come off if only

1 bent doesn't it?
Reply to
dave

Well.yes, of course the head has to come off, and to a small degree, it doesnt really matter how many are bent, as the cost of the valves is only half of the total refurb cost. However, there are 2 refurbers advertising on ebay to collect/deliver and repair the head for £350, which doesnt seem too bad to me at all, though obviously it is £350 I would rather not spend. I occasionally have dealings with a local machine shop, so i think I'll take it to them to have a look, if they can do it as a similar price, then they'll get the work. The bonus with them is that if only 10 valve need replcaing, the cost will come down. They also do a good job on heads they have in.

I started stripping it down yesterday, the tensioner bearing had completely disintegrated, which is rather annoying, as it was only changed 14 months/6000 miles ago. I got it from Euro Car parts with the cambelt, but being as it is 18 months since I bought them, I'd reckon it would be pretty futile taking it back to them to complain about the poor quality/short life of the bearing.

I also took the cam cover off, and saw no evidence of bent valves, which must be a good sign - if they had been given a good whack from the pistons, you can see a gap between follower and cam, so hopefully it will only be slightly bent valves with no piston damage. Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

I've not witnessed any 20v heads after belt breakage, but i am told its not very pretty as a rule.

I dont think you can make any plans until you have the head off and surveyed the damage.

I would remove ALL valves that have made contact and check their guides very carefully as they are known to shatter, and you will have more problems if it goes back together with a shattered guide not replaced...

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Isn't that a bit like saying why bet on horse racing?

Reply to
Depresion

And against all expectations, there are only 6 bent valves, 2 inlet, 4 exhaust, which I think is pretty much a good result considering it could have been all 20. Oh, and these are swines to get the head off. I was yearning to buy an old Cortina with its Pinto head after struggling with this one over the last few days. Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

Was it stuck , or just alot of bolts to remove / deck clearing to be done?

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Lots of things to be removed. I broke 2 small pipe connectors and the oil dipstick pipe during this. Then scrambling about undernetah to undo the exhaust bolts - 5 came off as complete stud and nut, the 6th was just a nut that came off. Everything else undone (I thought), and the head was only rocking slightly. Go round it again. Still cannot see what is holding it. Wedge in a large piece of wood for leverage, and the (tight) head gasket bond is broken, but it still wont move more than 10mm or so. Look again, and there is a steady bar clamped between the block and the exhaust manifold. Thats why only 5 complete studs came out of the exhaust, the 6th had a further nut on it holding this bar. Once that was removed, after jacking up the front yet again, the head came off quite easily. It woudl have been a lot easier if I had access to a pit, or lift, but doing it on my driveway didnt help things at all. Still, it is off now, and will need to go to the engineering shop for repair. Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

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