cambelt snapped (ABF)

[[han]]

my little brothers cambelt went on sunday night, gassessing the damage tomorrow night

[raylee25]

How much will i get for the car now that the engine is knacked. The body is in excellent condition.1997 (R)  3 door Diamond black,11 months MOT. New suspension (spax) miltek exhaust, chipped by AMD. It would make an excellent project car.

[DazVR6]

Sounds like a sweet car....aint you got the money to fix it?

[raylee25]

I've got the money, but the cars 10 years old. is really worth saving? and also I dont know what other damage its done apart from the head, don't want it to end up as a money pit.

[DazVR6]

If its as good as you say it is then yes its worth saving, is there any way you could get someone i.e your mechanic to remove the head and assess the damage? or get a second hand ABF off fleebay and get it fitted, should cost less than a grand.

[garfayliu]

depending on how urgently you need the car you could try doing the job yourself, or finding a mechanic friend who'll do it for a couple hundred quid, or a hundred pints  the easiest way would be to source a replacement head and do a straight swap. whilst replacing the cambelt, tensioner, i also had to replace my pulley cog thing.

My car was 9 years old at the time, only covered 44k, but the cambelt still gave up.. basically down to age. the cost of parts is about £300-400, with private labour ontop ~£200, to total £500-600.

I estimate a mk3 16v on 103k is worth around £2.5k because of mods
Without an engine less than £1k.

The other option I had was to do a 1.8T 150bhp transplant, at about £1k for the engine +labour, but at the time, I needed the car.

Worst thing I found was that I couldn't claim the repairs on insurance, which I didn't know at the time.
Where abouts are you based?

[Len]

Its unlikely you have done any major damage as if you had the engine would have siezed and thrown something!
Probably just bent valves and maybe a few marks on the piston tops. But they wont matter.
Valves are not difficult. you just need a valve spring compressor tool and a valve grinding kit.
Get a mate to pull the head off then play with in on the kitchen table!

[tommk3cab]

How much will i get for the car now that the engine is knacked. The body is in excellent condition.1997 (R)  3 door Diamond black,11 months MOT. New suspension (spax) miltek exhaust, chipped by AMD. It would make an excellent project car.

id put it up for round about 2 k with offers ond see what happens.

[Martz]

Ooohhh dear, I read these and it takes me back to my A3. 90MPH on the M40 and snap. All 20 valves bent and one hell of a fecked engine. Got a engince from a scrappy and my mate put it in.

Sad thing is I had the parts to replace the cambelt and it was due to be done the next day.

Cost to me - £1400 for parts and mates rates labour. OUCH!

[raylee25]

Hey Garf, I'm based in London, not far from Heathrow.

Vw want £1200 +vat for a complete head and the mech will fit it at home for £300. If I do go ahead with the job, will there be a drop in performance, and should I get the pistons replaced as well? or is that a bit too much?