98 v70xc timing belt broke

kaneco · Post by **kaneco** » 12 Nov 2011, 03:59

My timing belt broke on my car while i was in St. Louis(I'm from Pittsburgh) I have 167,000 miles on the car and the timing belt was just done at 138,000. Should the entire engine be replaced or just the head.

Billc1015 · Post by **Billc1015** » 12 Nov 2011, 04:12

Where did you have the belt replaced? If it was at a Volvo dealer, they should cover it under warranty.

Post by **precopster** » 12 Nov 2011, 04:24

You probably have some bent valves and possibly some small dents in the crowns of some of your pistons (though this is not a worry)

The factory valve guides are steel and quite hard to damage. If you are capable of your own maintenance (there are more than enough online guides here to pull the head) you could save some serious cash.

You can buy some tools and do most maintenance yourself. To remove valves a simple tool made from a 3/4 inch piece of copper pipe and a clamp will work; I think Ozark Lee had a pic the other day on the forum. At least you could put in a new belt and see if you can turn the motor over by hand (this is the easy part)

Can you determine why the belt failed? Was it a timing component that caused it to break? You may want to replace that too. By doing a compression check once the belt is fitted you can tell how many cylinders are affected. This is by no means a guide to how many valves are bent IN EACH CYLINDER but at least you have an idea. Clearwater heads have rebuilt heads for around $400 so by using the head gasket tutorial you can have her on the road with minimal cost.

Post by **JRL** » 12 Nov 2011, 06:49

Out of curiosity, was this a complete belt replacement, belt AND tensioner?

Post by **rspi** » 12 Nov 2011, 13:38

kaneco wrote:My timing belt broke on my car while i was in St. Louis(I'm from Pittsburgh) I have 167,000 miles on the car and the timing belt was just done at 138,000. Should the entire engine be replaced or just the head.

I'd also like to know what all was replaced at your last belt replacement? Were you hearing any cold motor squeeking? Did a roller break or come off?

Post by **erikv11** » 12 Nov 2011, 13:46

kaneco wrote:My timing belt broke on my car while i was in St. Louis(I'm from Pittsburgh) I have 167,000 miles on the car and the timing belt was just done at 138,000. Should the entire engine be replaced or just the head.

When the timing belt breaks, it only rarely affects any thing in the bottom of the enging, so 99% of the time the answer is "just the head."

As sort of mentioned, the one thing to look out for is valve-piston contact that busted a hole in a piston when the timing belt broke. It is unlikely and you'll know right away once the head is pulled. Otherwise, the bottom ends of these engines hold out extremely well, so unless your car had low compression issues before the belt broke I wouldn't worry at all about the wear on the rest of the engine at only 167,000 miles.