My wife's V60 (2 litre 20v turbo
but a diesel
) cam belt has decided to jump a few teeth and cause head damage
It happened when my wife was only 1/4 mile from home, pulling out at a junction, changing from 1st to 2nd (presumably at low revs) when the engine cut out and would not restart.
Unfortunately I am working away from home for a few weeks and only managed to get the car towed home first, then to the local garage (with immense thanks to jonnyboy54321
) and they say that the valves are maybe OK but one or more camshafts and/or camshaft bearing surfaces may be damaged, and have recommended a complete new head. This was after they ascertained that the cam belt tensioner and other belts were fine, put the belt back and started the engine up but it was clearly not running properly.
This causes me grief on a number of levels:
1. It's hard for me to understand exactly what has happened and which bits *need* to be replaced
2. Even if repaired, I don't know why it happened, and how to be sure it won't happen again
3. The cost of a used compete head from a scrappy and/or refurbed is in the region of £1500-£2000 and there will be maybe £1000 of labour to finish the job, total is more than half the value of the car
I have only enquired using the normal scrappy "agents" and haven't contacted A1 in Wokingham for example to see if they have a donor vehicle I could remove the head from myself (when back in the UK). I could join some Volvo forums to seek advice and a replacement head I suppose?
So I'm wondering what to so. For that cost for just the head, it might be worth sourcing a complete engine for not much more, but I guess a lot more hassle/cost to swap over. Or I could recover the car back home and strip the head myself, replacing only the bits that need replacing, but the only engines I've ever done that on are '60s and 70's Fiat petrol engines, and could be beyond my capabilities/toolset. I could get the garage to strip the head instead but likely labour costs might exceed parts cost savings. Or sell the car as a non-runner...
Advice/opinions are being sought from this venerable forum...