Mates 1995 Rover 218 diseasel tintop has just bit the dust. Cambelt has gone and snapped the camshaft
as a result. I've been told that on this engine (Pug unit) the valves are straight on to the pistons and
don't bend but snaps the cam instead.

Anyone back this up ?
It may be worth lobbing a second hand cam in, I know the car's worth nowt but the rest of it is spot
on, shame to scrap it.

You might get away with it if the pistons are flat-toppers, but Diesel pistons tend to have a combustion chamber in them, which means that the valves will probably bend as they want to follow the contours of the chamber.

Put new valves in it. The impact force may have breached the buckling load of the valve stems. If the stems are even slightly wonky, the guides will wear very quick, then you have a TRUE oil burner!!

Sorry...

Ed.

Slap a belt on then turn it over by hand. If thats ok then try starting. You'll soon find out.

Would look in cambelt bible but
a) I'm lazy and
b) I cant get to it at the mo.

99.9% likely the head is totaled unfortunately. Have you had the cam cover off and looked? Very often the camshaft bearing caps get smashed as well, and the valve are almost certain to be toast.

If you can get hold of a good head for cheap it might be worth a go, though it's not the most pleasant of jobs doing the heads on them.

The pug motor is an interfereance engine

Good news is the crowns are 14mm thick, so you might be lucky with just bent valves

[Edited on 23/7/07 by Fatboy Dave]

Experience of Citroen/Peugeot 1.7 diesel when cambelt busts is a broken camchaft. Never bothered to find out if valves were bent. Just scrapped the car. Take off the cam cover to see what has happened and how big a bill you have. Cheapest option is probably a fresh engine from the scrappies.

Strip and do an autopsy --- find out what failed first before you try and repair.

My experience with a Pug diesel was a trashed engine. The belt broke and although the cam didn't snap, it broke the bearing caps, trashing the cylinder head. On internal inspection, the pistons and bores looked fine, but several valves were foobarred.

I scrapped the engine and got a low mileage replacement for ~ £300 IIRC. The Pug 106 was reasonably new though and worth keeping - A rover 218 may not be.