Ahoy! There she blows!

[dpawl31]

Yeah. Motors toast.

Story goes like this - timing belt making noise.
No cash to do whole thing, buy belt, tear it down myself, can't figure how to release tension to get belt on,
pay a shop $100 to put it on and back together.
Told them I'd be back to have them do the water pump, idler, tensioner.

Low and behold, my idler wheel gave out, belt stayed intact but skipped timing.
Used a scope and saw marks on two outer piston crowns, pretty sure that's valve damage.
Scoped into timing area, saw the belt cut a groove THROUGH the idler wheel jammed into the side of the case.


SO!

What are my options now? I am very low on cash, but need to get my car going.
I have a friend that's a service writer and found me a 30k motor a few hours drive for $300.

Originally was thinking swap motors, now I am thinking what if I just swap heads and repair timing stuff?

Also tempting me is a 2.0L cobalt swap, or the nemasys 2L swap.... or LSJ... lol.

Just don't have the cash to do what I want (LSJ)

Having the car towed to my parents house due to 2 bay garage... thinking I'll pull the head in their garage to see what's what in there.

I've always wanted MORE POWER, and I LOVE my car everything about it, but need more power.
Always wanted to wait till I had the cash and boost it like the one on youtube with 172whp @ 8psi or something like that... but knew that was a way down the road. Now I am stuck paying for a 6 year old paper weight every month.


My dad's aveo just started making a squeak from the timing belt...
My dad's truck just lost an alternator...
When it rains it pours, damnit.

Any help guys?

[thehunterooo]

just get another 1.6, you do not have the money to go with any other crazy swap

a haed on ebay is about $450 plus whatever else damage you have, best buy that engine

[Petrified.Rabbit]

$300 for a "known good" engine is a good deal to get you back on the road.

if money is tight that you had to skimp on parts and you couldnt finish it yourself, then a swap is not right for you, especially right now.

i would buy the engine and put it in, then when you have more money, either build your old engine for some more hp/boost.. or start piecing a swap together.

[dpawl31]

I think my plans are to get that $300 motor, and do the timing belt + accessories, head/valve cover gaskets, maybe I can find someone to port the head... then just swap.

Then I can build the other motor over the next few years and set it up for boost, which was my long term goal for the car anyway. For now I just need the car moving. By that time, I should be able to snag one of those 6 speed cruze trans out of the junk yard

[Petrified.Rabbit]

i wouldnt do the head gasket on the new engine.. you talking another $200 or so. And its not a common failure point.

timing belt and tensioner definitely do though.

if you wanted to tear a head off, pull your own and spend $200 rebuilding it instead of $300 on a second engine.

[dpawl31]

I've heard estimates of $1000-$1500 for a complete valve job repair + timing and accessories.

How can I get mine done for $200, especially if the head gasket is $200?

I found this:


It's $123.

What your saying is, it's better to leave ALL be on the NEW motor, and just do the timing stuff? I can do the valve cover gasket myself (already did that on the blown motor) and the head gasket I can do in the car if I ever need to.

So if I snag this motor for $300, $150 in gas or so, $31 belt, $43 tensioner, idler (already have) $42 water pump... that's $566 with virtually everything I need.
Any guesses on what I might need for parts just doing the swap?

[Petrified.Rabbit]

sounds like you touched everything on doing the swap but fluids and oil filter.

i was thinking $100 for the head gasket set and @$100 for the head bolts, if they are torque to yield.

You dont "pay" for a head job. you pull the head, and take it directly to a machine shop.. if they just replace and lap the 4-8 bent valves (only intake valves have been bent thus far on a timing belt break from what ive seen) and lap the seats, your looking at @ $25-40 per bad vale..

so it could be $100 if you have 4 valves, or $240

or if you buy a $25 tool and the valves yourself for $10 each on rock auto, you can replace then yourself IF NO SEAT DAMAGE.


My local shop redid my 16v volkswagen head, replaces all the valve seats, did a 3 angle valve job, put in hi rev springs, and decked the head for $350.. thats a lot more work than just putting in valves.

[dpawl31]

So if I have to pay that much for a valve job, and won't know how many valves till the head is pulled - I am going to need a gasket set anyway, so it will be that money PLUS the gasket set.

Starting to sound like even though it's a lot more labor (for ME) to do the whole motor, it makes the most sense (especially to get one with 60k less miles on the entire motor) to just pull my motor and drop in the other one.

I have to do all the timing stuff either way, and if I am going to pay almost the same price for the motor, as a gasket set and valve job, I think that's where I am leaning.

Anything I can do to the motor while it's out that won't cost much? Like gasket match the intake/exhaust?

[Petrified.Rabbit]

yeah, its the same cost about.. and yes you need the gasket set either way (not with new engine).

you could gasket match and port out the exhaust, not sure if the plastic intake could handle it though..
this would be better with the head matched as well, but i would only do that torn down..

you can port / knife edge the throttle body.



most of the things i would do in prep for your built engine, since you'll have two..

send cams out for regrind

port head, valve job, deck head

deck and punch the block out to 1.8 liters (doable on ecotec, not 100% positive on yours)

pistons

knife edge crank

then get stand alone..

plan on it to leave you around 11.5:1 with a 264 ish cam duration, 1.8 liter engine that revs very quickly and uses the upper end because of the cams.. i would guess you would get to @ 150-160 hp.. maybe more with dyno time.. thats an all engine build for about $2000.

[dpawl31]

Still trying to get ahold of the phone # for the $300 motor, if not I am going after the $550 motor. Otherwise, every other motor I see is $1750+ and I can't do that. If I can't snag the 300/550 I am going to pull my head and see if the internal damage is small enough to deal with (ie just a marred piston crown, no scars on cylinder wall etc)

What do you think the chances are that the valves/timing is the ONLY damage?

BTW, thanks very much for the help, it's a REALLY bad time for me to have this happen...