Hello,

I was driving my 2004 Dodge Neon down the highway and the timing belt broke. I have sense replaced the belt and the water pump, but I cannot get to get the timing right. I placed a dowel in the first spark plug hole to make sure it was at its highest point. I made sure the tensioner is within allowance. I have lined the arrows up on the crank shaft sprocket and the cam shaft sprocket. It is running rough and rich. I am not sure what to do at this point. I do not want to spend 5 to 6 hundred to have someone else fix this, because of the time I have already put into this.

Please let me know if more information is needed, any help will be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

If your timing belt broke while driving it is possible that your pistons bent some of your valves.

 

Not only possible, but about 99% likely, unfortunately.

 

Yup, just not making it sound bad for him. But he's going to have to replace several if not all the valves in the cylinder head assembly. Worse case, your going to have to replace all 8 intake valves and 8 exhaust valves. That's if your cylinder head isn't damaged either.

 

Even if the car died?

 

-Yep. Because even when the belt broke, the crank was still turning and moving the pistons while the valves were stopped at whatever position they were in at the time of the breakage. Unfortunately, this is what a zero-tolerance is all about. Pretty much time to pull the head to see what damage has occurred....

L8R,
Matt

 

Yup, your going to have to get a little dirty to see what the real damage is. Your going to have to replace the valves for a fact. Just on valves to replace all 16 of them your already looking at about $160 - $200 + another $20 - $40 for the valve stem seals. Also replace the head gasket which is about $35 - $50 and get the cylinder head resurfaced.

So in total your looking at around $350 on parts and tools if you do it yourself.

If you need instructions on how to remove your head let me know. I'll make a thread on how to disassemble and reassemble the head.

 

Replacing the Valves is not a much as I thought it would be. I am manically incline, but no where near a mechanic. How hard is this to do and should it be attempted by a non mechanic? I was able to change the timing belt and line it back up, but from what I was told timing belt and replacing value are two thing a non mechanic should not do. what do you think?

 

Read these following two threads and see if your capable of performing the job yourself

REMOVAL

INSTALLATION

 

I think you're biggest obstacle will be tools.