Newbie with Aveo in need of timing belt/head help

[DRG2003]

Hey all,

New here but been lurking for a few weeks. I guess I'll start by explaining how I came across my 05 Chevy Aveo. My friend decided to drive cross country from MA to AZ. I warned her to make sure everything was up to speed on her car maintenance before she left. I specifically mentioned the timing belt after looking up the interval it should be changed and reading the horror stories. She decided to chance it and broke down in WV. The shop there quoted her $2000 for repairs so she was going to just leave it and let them have it. (!) When I started saying how crazy that was, she said if I got it here I could have it. So... $725 later it arrived in VT.

Once I dove into it found that the timing belt didn't actually break... the plastic idler pulley shattered and chunks melted/wedged themselves at the bottom against the crankshaft pulley. Even though I knew it was an interference engine and had most likely jumped time I decided to chance it and just install a full timing belt kit and see if it cranked. Did that last night and nothing.

So looks like my next step is to pull the head and check for valve/piston damage. Going to work on it this week a little at a time after work and into the weekend. Any tips for pulling the head? Can I easily tell if the head needs to be machined or just the valves replaced? And if just replacing valves is this hard to do myself?

Thanks for bearing with me on the long post. I'm used to working on VWs so this car seems nice and simple compared.

-Dan