hi guys before i spend money on it can any one help me i have been told by my recovery driver that picked my car up in cardiff that the cam belt has gone but i took the casing off to find the belt was not broke but the tensioner was melted if i replace this will my car be ok or is it to be taken to a resting place can anyone help before i get rid of it P.S its a 1.6 16v escort mrk 5 but it has the EFI engine. thanks ryan

I would say that the belt has slipped a tooth or more and the damage depends on if it slipped 1 tooth or more than 1 tooth and what the RPM was at the time. I would say at least a few valves have been bent and at worst you need another head, either recon or 2nd hand. Check the timing, if you can, to see if it's out, but I'm sure that if the tensioner's gone and it won't run or runs roughly then you need to take the head off.

i was doing 3000 revs on M4 when it hapened doing 75+

Was there any noises when it went?

Thing is how much was the car worth before it went? What is it going to cost to take the head off and get a proper assessment of the damage?

If you change the Cambelt only to find you have valve, piston and in some cases bottom end damage as well, you will be pretty gutted to have wasted the money.

At that speed if the engine died, you can be pretty sure there will be at least top end damage. Idf the belt did not slip, I would have thought it would still be running albiet on the rough side.

Hope you get it sorted.

Can pretty much guarentee there will be damage in the head.

Buy a 2nd hand head - £50
Cam belt kit with Tensioner - £100
Head Gasket - £15

And repair it.

Or buy a whole ne engine for £100-150 and swap the whole engine