Broken cambelt engine question

Does anyone know if the HC engine (1.3) is a "safe" engine.

Meaning, if you break the cambelt you can (often) just put on a new one and fire up again.

The engine in eg an MX5, that's possible.

Your answers are appreciated....

No, the H series engine are interference engines. If you try to turn the crank with out a cam belt fitted the pistons hit the valves.

Thanks HighlyJetted. Much appreciated.

In the "preparing for the worst" sort of thing, how extensive is the damage likely to be on this engine type?

Maybe impossible to quantify, but someone who has seen enough would probably know.

Ok so just found a post "Collisions" by this forum guru where it shows the damage. Tnx

Keep in mind the failure of the "collisions" post engine probably went like this:-

Van been drove for way too long with no oil.
Camshaft welds to cylinder head journals.
Cambelt snaps.
Pistons hit valves.

Changing the cambelt sooner would never have resolved anything

If anyone is interested, every set of exhaust valves is bent and two sets of inlet valves are bent.
The vehicle was travelling at 50mph in 5th, downhill.

For the sake of completeness, I will update on whether the new head from the substantially older engine sorts me out. Things look hopeful but we can't be 100% sure the bottom of the engine isn't damaged.

This is a -1 for Blueprint belts! But it has been yet another useful learning experience. The HiJet is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

What does that belt look like?

Is it snapped in 1 place?

Belts never just snap, there is always a reason.

Is the tensioner seized or flapping about?

Is the cam seized up?

Or has the belt being riding off to one side because someone has not built it up properly and shredded the belt into spaghetti?

I'll take a photo later. As far as the wheels and tensioner go, everything is nice and clean and smooth with no evidence of fouling. The belt looks mint apart from the tear, which is close to the printing mark and is almost a diagonal, or two 50% breaks within 2cm of each other. A "foreign body" has been mooted by the expert but there isn't anything to show of that in the belt cover.

How many miles did it get?

Could possibly have had damage to the edge which caused the failure

It could have been fitted just before I bought the van, so 3000 miles. Or maybe it's older. Either way, it isn't original equipment and the van has done only 56k. I don't want to be one of those people that doesn't trust a salesman of used vehicles though.

Also I don't need to know about how it should have been changed when the head was off last time. We made the choice we made!

And Raggy, I see what you're saying but it went in one bang without scraping noises or evidence of touching the sides.

I'm not certain that it's going to be possible to ascertain the cause of death but it's an interesting process to go through.

Thanks everyone for taking an interest!

It also could have been wayyyyy over tight.

You just need to be sure, that when you redo it, the next one doesn't snap 2 weeks late.

Thus the questions, not being cruel etc.

Just because it is such a strange issue i'd be more inclined to believe it is caused by human intervention, not divine intervention.

I'm not looking for blaming and claiming, just always learning from ones mistakes so to speak.

Thanks HJ. I know you know that the Hijet has a spring tensioner, so it most likely got too tight from something in the belt case getting trapped in the wheels.
It was refitted by a pro and it isn't a complicated belt....though I suppose noone is above making a mistake.
But what was the mystery item in the belt case? Where's scooby doo when you need him?

The tensioner is not sprung. The spring on it only holds it before you tighten the bolt up in the middle of the tensioner. The spring does not pretension it either, you have to tension it by hand, then tighten the clamping bolt.

I would probably know that if i'd done it myself

https://www.acorn-ind.co.uk/insight/Top-6-Causes-of-Timing-Belt-Failure/

Meanwhile, back in Daihatsu hell...

The engine is back together with a head from a 1999 hijet (which is identical in every way, including the EGR port hidden behind a plate) and new gaskets etcetc, there's fuel and there's a spark and the timing is set up according to the manual and yet it won't fire. Maybe the timing is slightly wrong? It was a pain to start after the last time the head was off, but this is something else.

If you have an idea or opinion matt, I'd be very grateful to hear it.

Does it have spark?

Does it start if you squirt some brake cleaner / fuel down its mouth?

Well, leaving it a week doesn't seem to have hurt.
So (before and without resorting to the above) we were about to do a compression test today and it started. No effort. Great.

To complete the story, it did a 60 mile journey before showing headgasket failure. The replacement head possibly not as flat as it looked or cracked.
The solution this time was to put the valves from the replacement head back into the original head (which had been skimmed earlier in the year).
Now it runs better than ever. Hooray.

The moral of the story is, if you get a snapped belt, even if you bend all the valves, you can replace just the valves and maybe this will work for you.

Hopefully this is the end of this story.