306 S16 camshaft belt snapped yesterday

Alby

Alby

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May 16, 2002
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Carrum, Vic
I've been really enjoying my 1995 306 S16 until yesterday. Cruising down Cranbourne Road at around 3,000 revs the engine suddenly lost power, started running very like it was out of petrol & a few seconds later stopped altogether. Examination this morning confirms my worst fears - camshaft belt has disintegrated &, just to add more interest, one of the tensioner pulleys (probably the idler) also was apart with the outer shell having bored its way through the timing gear cover & jammed between engine & frame.

I think these are an interference engine so at the minimum I presume it will have bent valves. At the maximum it might make a good boat anchor.

So a bit depressed this morning. Hopefully someone will have a positive comment that will cheer me up or maybe a really good but very cheap S16 or Gti6 engine laying around that they'd just love to get rid of.

Cheers,
Alby
 
Yes, it will have bent valves. Be positive though. They're not expensive or difficult to fix. Once freshened up and back together, with a new water pump, pulleys, head gasket etc., it will be awesome.

I have plenty of 2nd hand valves and some new ones.
 
Hey Peter, thank you - that’s exactly the positive thoughts I needed to hear!!
Cheers mate
 
cam be;lt problem
1989 Grand Final Speech at 3/4 time
Alan Jeans
The boy at the shoe shop would not pay the price!
Pay the price
Cam belt replacements are tres important
Hawthorn were premiers.
N,oubliez pas !
GL
 
Haha Greg, as a very long time Hawks supporter I remember that speech & that day very well. Well chosen!

And yep, love the car so will pay the price!
 
Look what has turned up! Perfect timing, excuse the pun.
 

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Hey Peter,

Haha, perfect timing for sure! I've talked to Sal, who sounds a great bloke & a very genuine car enthusiast.

He bought the engine off David Cavanagh as a spare, apparent quite low mileage & very good condition. So I've bought it & will pick it up tomorrow or next few days.

Now need to do some research on how difficult it is to get engines in & out of 306's and what I should do to the engine before it goes in - new timing belt, tensioners & water pump for sure, clutch maybe & who knows what else.

Thank you heaps Peter for your interest & support. I really appreciate it!

Cheers
Alby
 
The engine I mentioned above has fallen through for various reasons.

Think I’ll now pull the head off mine & get a better idea of what damage was done.

I understand it’s a fairly big job so if anyone has any suggestions for making it simpler, please let me know.
 
Does anyone know the exact size torx tool needed to undo the head bolts on a 306 S16?

My tx50 is quite loose in the bolt head while the tx55 is too big. Tried an 8mm allen key which got the first couple undone but looks like it might have damaged the bolt head on the 4th one. The 3rd one is in so tight my 3/8 drive socket bar snapped before the bolt moved.

Very frustrating morning. I'm getting too old for this.
 
Alby said:
Does anyone know the exact size torx tool needed to undo the head bolts on a 306 S16?

My tx50 is quite loose in the bolt head while the tx55 is too big.
Click to expand...
Well, after taking a break & then having another look, it seems the tx55 size does fit most of the head bolts. A couple of them have been damaged & that gave me the impression the tx55 was too big.
So will go & buy a half inch drive tx55 & see how that works out.
 
I'm sure you would need new head bolts regardless.
 
Thanks David, yep, I’ll add head bolts to the parts list I’m getting together. Hopefully available at Europarts or somewhere else in Australia.
 
If it was like the Mi16 I pulled apart same issue, tap in the larger one and use a 1/2 inch bar. for your own sanity I would use some anti corrosion / galling agent when you install ie grease of some form very sparingly.
 
Whilst oem is T55, they also come in E14 from some suppliers. This is a pain, as I had to turn down the OD of the socket.
 
Thanks Matthew & Peter, the Haynes manual is very sparse in its descriptions & diagrams. Very little help in tackling this job for the first time. For instance under ‘tools’ it just states ‘torx bits’.
I’ve spent more time trying to work out what to do or what tool to use than actually doing stuff.
Thankfully the assistance on this forum is terrific! 👍👍
 
Thanks for everybody's assistance. Head came off quite straight forwardly today using the correct tools.

Unfortunately all 16 valves are bent so now will take a few days break to consider options.
 
As this saga has nearly finished I wanted to thank everybody who provided positive support & assistance, especially PeterT who found me a good head to replace mine.

Also a word of warning. I bought this car with the timing belt having been replaced 30k km ago. All good for a little while I thought.

It’s now obvious that it wasn’t the belt that snapped but one of the tensioners that disintegrated taking the belt with it. Seems like the tensioners weren’t replaced when the belt was done!

So a good lesson there for me & anyone else who’s sometimes tempted to save a few $’s on a job - DON’T!
 
By the way, as the car was stuck in the garage for a few weeks I thought it was a good time to pull the dash out & replace the heater matrix which was stuffed.

Never done it before & really hope to never do it again. Although I’m sure it gets easier with knowledge & practice it’s not the sort of job that fits my description of ‘toying around with my car in the garage’
 
I need to replace that section of the heating duct behind the instrument cluster on my Mi16, and I'm not looking forward to it at all.
 
Good luck with that.
Watch out for how brittle old plastic can be, but I found what seems to be a good plastic glue if you need it
 
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