So I did a quick search and I know that when the timing jumps etc. most likely you end up with some bent valves but I was wondering how good the odds of not bending any valves are if the belt jumped at idle and the car shut off right after? This is what I was told happened, explained in my rant in the pits.

Anyways I'm just wondering how likely it is that I'll have my car before I go back to school in a week and bent valves = not likely.

Originally posted by cs82685
if the belt jumped at idle and the car shut off right after...

...it likely shut off because the engine was dead. Replace the belt and turn it over manually a couple times. Then fire it up and do a compression test. You'll have your answer then. Or, you could pull the head and inspect the valves. :shrug

I've only heard of one person dodging that bullet. 70mph on the freeway when it went. Engine shut down immediately and he got very lucky.

Yeah same thing happened to me, I thought for sure I didn't have any bent valves because I was only rolling along at about 5 mph and my car shut off immedatly but in reality I lost all 16. If you're going to have the head done might as well replace all of them with SS valves anyway. Well if you are at a good shop and they know what they are doing your head could be done in a day. The place I take mine is accross the street from the machine shop and they have done a complete head swap and rebuild in a day for me.

I'd say you have at least an 75% chance of bent valves. I did a T belt on a member's car here not long ago, where the water pump failed and took out a bunch of stuff in the t belt path..I figured it def bent some valves, but on the off chance that it didnt, i just put on the new pump, belt, ect., and left everything else apart. With just the belt on, it is enough to start the engine and see if it ran ok, and to check vacuum at idle. To my amazement, it ran perfect, and had 18 in/hg's of vac. Its not that much work to just install the timing belt and start it(be sure you have a good charged battery to run the engine), and if i had to pull the head, it wouldnt be much more work. I just left the engine supported by the oil pan, left the timing belt covers off, the crank pulley, and alt belt, acc belt, ect..Just be sure to let it only run long enough to make your diagnosis. If you are wary of starting, just get the t belt on, and then procede to do a compression test, that will tell you right there.