My water pump went, aswell as my timing belt. The mechanic says he cant see if the valves are bent untill he starts the process of chainging the timing belt and such. Is there a way to tell? I was goin only about 30 when it went, what are the chances of the valves been bent? Also he says if the valves are bent he can price out a new/used header or something and possibly just replace that?... maybe I should just look into doing an engine swap - thing is I just bought it for $3000 and am looking to sell it once it's repaired Thanks for the help!

 

whenever the belt brakes there is a pretty good chance that the valves are gone....when the belt went out on one of my old neons at was idling at a stop sign, and it managed to bend the valves......you should be able to replace the head as long as the pistons arent bad from hitting the valves....but pending on how many miles the car has you might be better off getting a used motor from the junk yard and throwing that it....the only way i can think to check the valves without ripping it apart, is to change the belt and see if it runs, or to change it, then check for compression....there might be another way but im not sure

 

Interference engine, just change the head or rebuild it it's done.

 

thanks for the help, turns out the valves aren't bent after all - lucky me

 

How did you find out? Did you do a compression check?

 

Thats almost immposible.

 

just got the car back today, they took the valve cover off and checked the valves themselves, and i believe they did a compression check aswell. They were pretty shocked too

 

Not the first time. Wish I had been so lucky...

 

my timing belt went at about 121,000 miles... i was actually traveling on the freeway doing about 80 when my car just shut off. but not so lucky me...my valves were bent to hell. went throught alot of crap gettin my car back on the road.. between 2 mechanics plus towing, i think i paid close to $1200

 

Man, I can get a used neon for that much...but it wouldn't have all the nice new goodies...maybe!