Is this repairable? Or would it be better to find a new head?

[bronzitsedan]

Hello, the timing belt broke on my car while I was driving. I took off the valve cover to inspect the damage and saw that some of the rocker arms are broken as well as parts of the head.
Is this repairable by a head/machine shop?
Or would it be better to find a good head? If anyone in the Portland, OR area has one for sale, send me a message!
Thanks in advance!

[82eye]

with luck you'll be able to rebuild the head, clean up the piston tops, and get it running. won't know how bad everything is until it's off the car.

[reelizmpro]

It's repairable but I'd look into getting another head. Looks like quite a bit of damage. Pull and inspect everything including the pistons and rods. You may need more than a head.

[bronzitsedan]

I pulled the head this weekend and found out that the timing belt did not seem to snap but it is damaged.
Scraped some of the gasket with a plastic razor and did not see any cracks on the block. Ill upload the pictures I took in case anyone can spot any cracks or weakness.
I was able to spin the crank and the pistons seemed to move fine. Not sure how to inspect the rods without pulling them out.

[bronzitsedan]

Photo dump 1

[bronzitsedan]

Photo dump 2

[82eye]

piston tops look ok. clean the tops off as best as you can and look for any marks. if not bad you can smooth them out to avoid hot spots on the tops. a couple in the middle look like they need work or replacement.

i'm not sure on the cylinder walls. at least 2 with the questionable pistons look to have scoring from broken valves. that will require a complete tear down and rebuild top to bottom and a rebore. i suspect the rods will be ok, the rockers are designed to be the weak point in a failure.

edit : it looks like your timing skipped really bad.

[McGyver]

Wow, how bad did it run for timing to be that far off? Or did the belt tensioner fail, allowing the belt to skip?

The piston/rod can take a pretty hard hit from the valve and be fine. You'd need a new rocker and valve though. Chances are that you could slap it together without touching the bottom end and it'll run good enough.

At this point, it probably makes sense to do a full rebuild. If the cylinder walls can't be cleaned up with a hone, you'll need to bore out to the 2nd over pistons (84.50mm). If you've got the time/money, this could also be a good time to build a 2.7i engine. Post # 37

[TobyB]

Ah, throw a couple of valves and rockers in it and see how it runs. The pictures look marginal-
as in, it's probably worth the $150 or so in consumables to try it, as a full rebuild will cost you pistons, and by the time
you're done it'll be well north of $3k.

t

[bronzitsedan]

Thanks for the input everyone!
This is my project e30 and I currently don't have the money or experience for a full engine rebuild. I got a used m20 head from someone locally and will be taking my old head and the used head to a cylinder head shop sometime this week.

[E30SPDFRK]

Closeup of piston 4 please, it looks horrible in some photos but OK in others

[e30davie]

yer i assumed piston 4 was smashed by the valves?! looks like it to me.

[bronzitsedan]

uploading some better photos.

[bronzitsedan]

Piston 1

[bronzitsedan]

Piston 2