1.9TD Timing Belt Failure :(

[a4gom]

My Pug 406 1.9TD Estate had to complete it's journey home tonight on the tow pole at the back of a RAC van
Got all the lights on the way home, stopped instantly, lifted the bonnet and there is play in the belt, too dark to do much investigation. The belt is slack but doesn't appear to have snapped so it could be a pulley / tensioner, hard to say till I get the cover off.
Question is how bad is the damage going to be?
I was doing low revs and speed and killed the engine straight away but I suppose I'd be a fool to even consider this is a safe engine?

Are there some checks I can do before I start splitting the engine?

As usual thanks in advance for any hints n tips.

Andy

[Harlequin]

head skim / full set of valves / gasket set, belt kit / water pump and aux belts - think thats about it for parts; when my espace let go at 9mph the bill was going to be £900 to fix it (ofc that was a 16v though and renault parts are >bleep< expensive)

[Peter.N.]

I had the one on my BX go some time ago. I took the head along to an engineering firm on account of the fact that you need an assortment of shims to set the clearances and you would need to buy a lot to make sure you had the right ones. I think the total bill including gaskets and a head skim was about £250.00 but that was some years ago.

Peter

[citronut]

check valve clearance's, and how many bits the cam is in ,
if all good fit a new belt and any tensioners that need replaceing, run it up and see how things go,

regards malcolm

[RichardW]

More often than not belt failure on the 1.9TD smashes the cam and the bearing caps - rendering the head scrap (the cam is line bored, so caps recovered from another engine may well not fit - although if you get a selection and you can make the cam turn freely it may well be OK). Take the rocker cover off and have a gander...

[a4gom]

Thanks guys i'll get the belt cover off and the rocker cover off first chance I get in daylight and see whats what.

[spider]

Unfortunately, it is quite common to end up with a "cam-o-three" on an XUD8 / XUD9 when the belt goes as the valves are operated via bucket / shim and there's nothing else to break when the piston rises with a stationary camshaft. I cannot remember what the 2.1 (XUD11) does, actually I don't think I've seen one of these break a belt that I can recall.

HDi's tend to snap rockers instead (no consolation I know) but there's no shortage of XUDT parts around so it should be possible to sort relatively cheaply.

[Peter.N.]

The 2.1 usually only break the rockers which can be replaced without removing the head - another reason for running a 2.1

I have just rememberd that the camshaft on my 1.9 did break but I had a secondhand on in stock which I fitted with its original bearing caps and it worked fine - I'm not saying that will allways be the case though.

Peter

[a4gom]

Haven't got the belt cover off yet, didn't have a 22mm spanner with me to crack the crank pulley belt before I started and couldn't see how I was actually going to remove the engine mounting but I have removed the rocker cover and the cam has snapped as has the central carrier.
Not sure what to do now, I was looking at changing it for a van and assuming I haven't damaged anything else I'm going to need a head, belt kit, head gasket kit and a load of time, I haven't looked at prices yet but I would guess getting it running would only get me the cost of the bits over scrap / breaking it.
Realistically whats the chance it hasn't damaged anything else?

[Peter.N.]

Replacing the head with a secondhand one would probably be you cheapest and easiest option.

Peter

[a4gom]

Well just won a complete engine on ebay so it looks like it's going back on the road. Good runner with 76k miles for £102, I've the best part of 300 miles to do to pick it up and i'll need to borrow a vehicle for the trip but as they say beggars can't be choosers.

So,....... any hints or tips for the engine change. (I think i'll be changing the belt before it goes in!)

[spider]

Change the water pump too as well as the belt.

The tensioners are generally OK, I've only ever had to replace one because of noise. More likely the plunger / spring is the issue (rare but can seize, not a problem until a belt change)

Give it a good clean before fitting as its an ideal time to attend to any oil leaks etc.

Is the unit complete with pump etc or is it just the engine itself ?

[a4gom]

Ad states complete engine and the picture shows pump, turbo, alternator etc . It also says its clean with no leaks!

[spider]

Later engines (approx 96ish sometimes earlier) will need the pump de-armouring if you do not get the transponder chip with it or you can fit your pump.

I'd personally de-armour it to save future hassles but whichever is best for you really.

[a4gom]

Is there a way of telling if it will need de-armouring by looking at it?
Is it easy to de-armour it? I recall having to get something like this done on my dads xantia but have a poor memory. I'm pretty sure the local diesel man did it for him for £50 so it can't be too hard to do. Are there any instructions anywhere?