Ok folks, your starter for 10 is..........

What sort of noise would a Coupe 2.0 16v make if the cambelt had broken?

Your follow up question is how do you tell what's f**ked up the engine??

I put a slave battery on the beast in question, and I am confusticated........ Would anyone expect warning lights, odd sounds, etc?

Cheers, Gavin.

I wouldn't expect any noise as the engine won't work

If valves are striking pistons expect a noise similar to shaking a bag of nails - very metallic in sound. When my brother-in-law did his cambelt at 70mph on the motorway, the net result was an engine that seemed to turn over phenominally quickly on the starter (because there was no longer any compression). He had, to be fair, bent all 16 valves over like broken nails and cracked 2 pistons!

Have you taken the cambelt cover off and had a look at the belt?

The noise could be anything from nothing, to a slight ticking or a bag of nails. As said above, the engine is likely to be turning faster than normal on the starter due to lack of compression. If you had a normal distributor (which I believe the Coupes don't have) you could take off the cap and see if the rotor arm turns while cranking the engine.

i take it the the news is not good.....

Thanks John & Theo. Engine spinning fast was what I got by the sound of it - I thought it might be jammed solid for some reason! Will have a look at the belt when I've sorted out a decent portable light.

Thanks again.

Hi Gavin
You may be better off by lifting off the cam cover, 10 bolts i think.
You will find if some cam follower/buckets have a large clearance and some have none that the valves are damaged.it will then be a head off job.
This way you can have a good guestimate without haveing to risk more damage by turning the engine over, I think you may have to loosen the top 2 cambelt cover bolts to remove the cam cover so you can look at the belt then.
hope this helps
Tim
ps if you need to

Hi Again
that should read
ps ring if you need to

now....i have a spare 2300 motor! might need a bit of "fitting in" but has a timing chain!

Hi
I have an engine from an 850 saloon, lightly modified probably 70ish hp it may fit straight into my coupe, that has a timing chain too!
Tim

1600 Twin Cam on E Bay if of any use!

Did you manage to find out the full "damage", Gavin?

Hi Martin,

Sorry, no! Have been so busy working to make sure all my clients pay no tax (D'oh!), I haven't managed to get to secret lockup number 1!!! Will keep you posted though.

I think the car is dead, but it's got a nice leather interior, aircon, cd changer..........