bad timing belt question

[mrhalfwit]

Hi all, I didn't take the time to read the archives but I have a quick question. I'm looking to buy a plymouth laser tommorow and the owner says the timming has jumped. He cant get the car to run, it will crank over but it dont run.

My question is if anyone with good knollege of the 2000 dohc motor, Is the engine an interfirance system? I'm going to do a compretion test and if he will let me i want to do a leak down test but how safe does everyone think I am with this car?

Thank you, Russ.

 

[Quasimondo]

These engines are inteference engines. Depending on how far the timing belt has jumped teeth, problems can vary from poor performance to a non running engine. One quick way of checking the timing is to pull off the upper timing belt cover (just two bolts) and with a 1/2" breaker bar, turn the crank until you see two marks on the cam gears. At TDC, the mark on the exhaust cam should be at the 9 o'clock position. The mark on the intake cam should be at the 3 o'clock position. If the timing belt has jumped too many teeth (I can't remember how many), then chances are that the pistons have slammed into an open valve, requiring a cylinder head rebuild.

 

[mrhalfwit]

These engines are inteference engines. Depending on how far the timing belt has jumped teeth, problems can vary from poor performance to a non running engine. One quick way of checking the timing is to pull off the upper timing belt cover (just two bolts) and with a 1/2" breaker bar, turn the crank until you see two marks on the cam gears. At TDC, the mark on the exhaust cam should be at the 9 o'clock position. The mark on the intake cam should be at the 3 o'clock position. If the timing belt has jumped too many teeth (I can't remember how many), then chances are that the pistons have slammed into an open valve, requiring a cylinder head rebuild.

Thank you very much, I'll take a closer look at what he got.