X died on the freeway last night - broken timing belt?

[onewaysoldier]

So, I had just gotten on the freeway to head home and had finished gradually accelerated up to 65 mph when all of a sudden the engine died.  While coasting over to the shoulder I pessed on the trottle pedal a couple of times to see if I could get any sort of response from the X. Nada.  The electrical system was completely up and running; stereo still playing, head lights still bright, and gagues still functioning.  Then I noticed no power brakes and no power steering.  Then all the red and amber waring lights poped up on the dash. When I finally stopped on the shoulder I tired to turn over the X a few times to see if it would even sputter..  No dice.  The starter would turn nice and quick but no response from the engine. 

Called my little brother (he own's a 88.5' zuk that we've been building up for the past couple years) and asked him to give me a tow back to myplace.

When my brother showed up I had him pull a plug wire while I turned the X over.  No apparent spark.  My guess, at the time, was a failed alternator and I didn't want try and diagnose it further until I got home. 

I grabbed my 6' tree saver, hooked up to the zuk, and let that little 90 HP beast tow me a 3/4 mile down the freeway and 1/2 mile up hills back to my place.  My brother and his zuk were both pretty prowd when we got back.  I have towed his zuk over 80 miles on and off the trail over the years and this was the first time he's had the opportunity to tow the X.

Started using the "search" feature on XOC to read threads using the word "dead" and eventually stumbled upon a helpful thread.

http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=45;t=00325 8#000014

Went out to the X, unscrewed and removed the dristributor cap, noted the position of the rotar, turned the X over, no movement of the rotar.  Turned the X over again, still no movement of the rotar.

Diagnosis - snapped the timing belt?  Let me know if you disage and quick.  It's my DD and I've got to get it rolling again on Thursday if at all possible.

Info on the X.
 - 130K
 - 35's
 - SAS'd
 - original timing belt
 - fairly new Oddessy battery

[xtoolbox]

Yeah normally if the rotor doesn't move, the timing belt is busted.

If it did break hope you don't have valve damage 

If you pull the valve cover and watch the valves while the engine is cranked, they should move.  If they don't move the belt is busted.

Good luck
Brian

[fleury123]

damm that sucks. As Brian said you could have threw some rods and such when it broke Did you notice any leaking afterwards. You might have gotten lucky. Also this belt should have been changed around 105k. I just did mine a few months back.

[onewaysoldier]

Alright, assuming the timing belt broke, it only makes sense that the values are damaged since I tried to bump start the truck while rolling to a stop, tried starting it from the side of the road, and have turned it over a couple of times now that it's in the driveway.  I must have bent a couple valves right?

So, with that in my my thought would be to pull the heads and check for visible damage.  I'd look to see if there were dents in the pistions, metal fragments in the cyclinders, or improperly seated valves right?  If there's any sign of damage I'll drop the heads off at the machine shop and have them rebuilt (I can forget having it finished by this evening).

If it checks out visibly and there's no obvious damage to any of the valves am I OK to put it back together again with new gaskets?  Or is the risk factor so hight that it would just make more more sense to get the heads rebuilt?



With regards to the fuel pump, I can hear it when the truck is turned in the on position.  After this ordeal is over I'm may just swap it out to avoid the problem in the future.

[XterracerX]

Wow! My worst X nightmare!

I'm only on 97K but have been getting parts here and there anticipating for the major work of timing belt change.

Glad to hear you're ok and made it home safe. Good luck on your X.

[onewaysoldier]

X died on the freeway last night - broken timing belt?

well, that answers the question...

So, I'm still thinking I should pull the heads and check for damage?  Or just have them rebuilt to avoid future problem?  Thoughts?

[fleury123]

you know , if this were me. I would have them re-built reguardless to have that peice of mind. What little I have left as it is. It will give you at a minimum of 100k more trouble free miles. Perhaps Superslidestyle can give you some advice since he rebuilt his engine. I am not sure is he did the bottom end as well . I think just the top. 


This sure bites, but hopefully the school you were going to lets you use the garage or whatever to help this along. I really thin you got lucky to this point as you were suppose to change the T-belt at 105K. I was paranoid and had mine done at 100K.

[XterracerX]

I'm already paranoid and I'm only at 97K. Not going to take any chances that's for sure...

So in the meantime, I will live vicariously in the pictures posted on the message board while I get things sorted out.

At least Matt has access to tools/resources and handy experience at his disposal. Good luck man!

[Bobby B.]

It is an interference motor, so be sure to check for collateral damage.

If you can get away with replacing the belt (which I hope is the case), replace the water pump while you're there. Also, in your pic behind the rad hose inlet, see that tiny bypass hose?  Replace that too.  No good way to get at it unless everthing's apart.

[superslidestyle]

Good god!  You let it go to 130K miles!?

The VG33 is an interference motor so if the timing belt broke, chances are the pistons tops are damaged, the valves are definitely bent and you're also going to need new valve guides.  If you go online to ebay.com and search under "Xterra gasket kit", you will find that there are some going for $50-60 dollars.  I highly recommend those kits.  I have one in my X.  And since you're going to tear the motor down, you should look into doing a port and polish yourself with earplugs, a drill (cordless is better if you have 4 batteries and 2 chargers like me), some 6" and 3" deburring bits and small 250 grit flap wheels.  This will give you the standard port.  I you want to polish the whole thing which is crucial on the exhaust side, check out the this link:  Standardabbrasives.com     and look at their 49 piece port and polish kit.  You might have to call them for more info as I could not find the kit I have on their web page.  I did a write up on that somewhere.  I'll have to post it up later. 
Also, you can enlarge the cooling ports on the head and intake manifold to help cool it further.  Go as big as the gaskets allow.  The engine tends to run hot because of a cramped exhaust manifold and cat design right by the back of the firewall.  Even after you shut the motor off, all of the parts and wires and stuff towards the back suffers from heat soak which is why I added cooling vents on mine.  I should have the write up on the cooling vents by the time you read this.

[onewaysoldier]

Well, just installed the new timing belt, minus the cooling system and the three other belts. Then I started the X up and to run it for a few seconds to see if the valves were shot... It ran very poorly. I could hear the exhaust coming out the intake. Valves are shot.

Pulling the heads now...

Superslidesytle...  You busy on Friday or Saturday?   I'll give you a call and run an idea by you.

Matt

[Soylent Yellow]

My condolences on this most unfortunate of events.  I hope the repairs go smoothly.

[XterracerX]

I like the idea of port and polish...

[superslidestyle]

Nobody should be sorry at this point.  IT'S UPGRADING TIME!!!  Aside from the obvious repairs you should be happy that now your rig is going to get much needed power and reliability upgrades.  Do think long term because you dont want to be doing this again anytime soon.  Replace hoses, vacuum lines, fuel lines and A MUST:  NEW HEAD BOLTS!  Just take my word on it.  I'm not going to be at the computer, I will be a bit busy most of the weekend but if you call me with questions, I can help you anytime (on Sat. anytime after 12 noon).

[onewaysoldier]

So here's what I started with earlier this evening.

X died on the freeway last night - broken timing belt?

This is what I ended up with at 10:30 this evening.

X died on the freeway last night - broken timing belt?

If you look at the ports for the intake manifold you'll see that the three ports that lead to the passenger side of the vehicle all appear to be very dark.  In fact, they've got a lot of oil inside them...  I'm now wondering if those few times the X got hot when the old radiator was dieing that I might have blow a head gasket on the passenger side...

Even though this timing belt issue is a pain in the butt and even though I'm going to end up rebuilding at least the top half and possibly the bottom half of the engine these events have pushed me to finding other issues that were going on inside the X that I had no idea were even there.  You may call me crazy, but I give God kudos and I'm thankful this happened so close to home and allowing it to damage the valves.  I would have been seriously bummed if this happened on the trail or if it hadn't been able to figure out the other issues.  The condition of the block and heads would have gotten much worse as time progressed.

As a note, there are about 4 different hoses on the back of the intake that are extremely difficult to remove.  It took me a couple hours to get those hoses off without destroying them.

Tomorrow morning, I'll pull the rest of the intake out, pull the valve covers, drop the PS pump and alternator, pull the block, and hopefully get the heads to the machine shop before lunch.