3S-GE - Cambelt gone, non interference?

[somersetmister]

Evening all,

Well sadly my cambelt has let go on my 1996 g-limited, I was under the impression that the engine has a non interference cambelt, so if it goes it does no engine damage.

Anyway trailered the car to my local garage, to be greeted by a new mechanic who said hopefully it wont have done damage, when I said it wont as its non interference he said he had an earlier year model go and cause engine damage.

So my question is my 1996 g-limited non interference and hes getting engines mixed up, or is there a chance the belt going has munched my engine??

Thanks for any feedback.

[shinny]

From the source of all knowledge, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_S_engine#3S-GE

The pistons are made from an aluminium alloy, designed to withstand high temperatures. An indentation is incorporated into the piston head to prevent the pistons from hitting the valves, should the timing belt break (this is not true of the later BEAMS - an acronym which stands for Breakthrough Engine with Advanced Mechanism System - motors). This is commonly referred to as a "non-interference" engine.

I don't knwo if this was true of the early, low powered 3s-fe engine which the mechanic could be referring to.

[jimi]

All MK1 and MK2 engines (bar the BEAMS) are non interference

[somersetmister]

Thanks for the replies guys, backed what I thought, I can tell the mechanic to stick to corollas

[Kinsy]

If the engine's had a head gasket and been skimmed then the valves can touch.

If the engine was at high revs then the chances of valve damage increase slightly - the more revolutions the pistons make the higher the chances of them touching.

[somersetmister]

Standard engine and I was going about 15 miles an hour....PHEW

[_Al_]

There have still been cases of engine damage in non-interference engines. It's not designed specifically to prevent valve damage it's just a handy side effect.

All I'm saying is that if he tells you there are some bent valves it's not necessarily because he's trying to rip you off.

[GMLive]

3sge's are non interference..well at least the gen 2 imports are, I found that out when I rebuilt mine, at the time I thought the in dents on the pistons were deep so while I had the pistons out I held a piston up against the head with the the valves fully open and they didn't even touch the piston.... this is the beauty of toyota cars their just so well thought about clever & sensible Japanese blokes!

[luke m]

Are rev 3-5 ones non interference too?

[Gr1NcH]

I had my cambelt go at about 15 mph. Changed belt and drove fine until head gasket let go. Luke at pacific works did the head gasket and noticed some of the valves were bent but he did say may not have been the cambelt going but on a 22 year old car probably just heat cycles and age.
Btw she's running sweet now.

[baileydom]

All MK1 and MK2 engines (bar the BEAMS) are non interference

Are rev 3-5 ones non interference too?

As jimi said. ALL Mk1 and Mk2 engines bar the beams.

Sent from my GT-I9100

[luke m]

Oh God dam it!!!!

I read rev 1 and 2 not mk!!!!! Ah ha!

[somersetmister]

Evening all,

Well an update, thankfully the cambelt snapping did not damage the engine and the 2 is running sweeter than ever, but I did discover something interesting at the garage.....

The chap who runs the garage and owns a sonic shadow showed me a computer programme they bought, now I cant remember the name of it but basically it lists every model of car and pretty much every potential job that would need doing, so the owner shows me the listing for a cambelt for a 1995 mr2, it basically shows a diagram of the cambelt, a how to, part details, labour time and says check for engine damage, it states the engine is an interference engine and the snapping of the belt is likely to cause engine damage!!!!!

The owner who is an mr2 nut, says hes had about 10 mr2s in his time with snapped belts and most had some type of engine damage, thats why he was so suprised mine was un-harmed.

Just some food for thought guys

[jimi]

The chap who runs the garage and owns a sonic shadow showed me a computer programme they bought, now I cant remember the name of it but basically it lists every model of car and pretty much every potential job that would need doing, so the owner shows me the listing for a cambelt for a 1995 mr2, it basically shows a diagram of the cambelt, a how to, part details, labour time and says check for engine damage, it states the engine is an interference engine and the snapping of the belt is likely to cause engine damage!!!!!

I believe Toyota's own engine repair manual which is where this quote comes from

Pistons are made of high temperature-resistant aluminum alloy, and a depression is built into the piston head to prevent interference with the valves.

not some third party software, probably Autodata which is wrong
As a small aside I know for a fact that some versions Autodata give the wrong torque settings for the MK1 cylinder head which has led to several people blowing brand new headgaskets.
Trust the BGB not Autodata