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Broke T Belt 93 240

Crushercurtis

New member
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
940 swap into 240 (formally: Seized Intermediate shaft 93 240)

So I bought a 93 240 for $200 after the owner broke the timing belt. Here's where things get sketchy. She said the car sat all winter and (just 1 winter) and when she tried to start it and the belt snapped. I didn't really ask the details and in hindsight I should have. I don't know if it started and drove before it snapped, or just snapped immediately upon cranking. So she had it towed to a shop, the shop supposedly put and timing belt on it for $280 and it snapped again. They told her she had a seized cam. That's where I come in. I bought it with everything disassembled . No serpentine belt, No timing cover, no crank pulley, no tensioner and spring. Knowing that these are safe motors I cranked it and the bottom seamed to turn freely and I turned the cam and it seemed to turn okay. I removed the valve cover expecting to see the cam snapped in half and the back end not turning I find that it too looks okay (video below). I'm thinking the shop tried to rip her off for an engine or cylinder had job. They had to know the cam wasn't seized because they supposedly put a replacement belt on it and they would have had to turn the cam to complete the job. Or, as my father thinks, they put the belt on wrong and snapped it again (is that possible)? To me that sounds unlikely, because it you can't by a tbelt on a sohc 4 cylinder with a belt you probably shouldn't be in business. Or maybe they tried to put a square belt on it (car has circular pulleys)???

Anyway, what should I do? I'm thinking of just putting it back together and trying to start it. Any ideas, tips, pointers, something I missed or something to check, before I reassemble?

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If the cam turns and nothing looks weird under the valve cover I'd go ahead and slap a new belt/tensioner on it.


Err... I meant to say it's all worthless ruined junk, I'll take it from you for $200 so you don't take a loss on it!
 
lololol, I jumped at it because its from Alabama with no rust and supposedly has 110k miles on it. Seems like it had a decent owner with new shocks, brakes and tires, service records etc.
 
Make sure the aux shaft turns. You know, the other thing the belt is supposed to turn...

People have run square belts on round gears in these cars just fine.

The other thing that stops the cam and breaks the belt is if oil isn't getting up to the cam after a while it will sieze and break the belt, then later after it cools down the cam will then turn again. Could be just out of oil when it happend, you know not enough oil in the oil pan to be sucked up by oil pump and pumped all the way to the top of the motor where the cam is.
 
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Oh, by aux shaft do you mean Intermediate shaft? If so, how easily should it turn. I just tried with a small ratchet and its not turning at all. I feel like an idiot for not checking previously.
 
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Take out the distributor and look down that hole at aux shaft. Take off the manual fuel pump block off plate look at aux shaft. Take off PCV box and pull up oil pump gear and see if it then turns. Maybe your oil pump is siezed. Oil pump runs off oil pump drive shaft that runs off aux shaft at end of shaft under PCV black plastic box under intake manifold.

Let us know what it is. Something is broke or seized. Could be your distributor. At least you've narrowed it down more then before when you where gonna waste another belt...
 
Is there a trick to getting the distributor out? Removed the bolt, but its not coming.



Spray it liberally with WD-40 or similar. Work it back and forth while continuing to spray occasionally. Once it moves back and forth, you can usually (very gently) pry it up and out.


They are usually very difficult to remove if they have never been removed. Be sure to put a good coating of syl-glide on the oring etc. when you reassemble it.
 
So I got distributor out, it actually came out super easy. Unfortunately its still seized. Whats the next step? Is it dropping the oil pan and inspecting he oil pump? I hear its a real pain.

Ditto what?s been said. Also you can put an impact gun or drill on and shaft nut and spin it fast to see if it builds oil pressure.
Oh so its okay to force the intermediate shaft to turn? I was thinking of putting a breaker bar on it.
 
Does it wiggle back and forth a tiny bit?

The oil pump drive gear is underneath the crankcase breather box. You should probably pull that next and see if that gear will come out (it will spin as it comes out due to the angle of the teeth - it should lift up and out but sometimes there is oil sludge/gunk built up on the bottom side.

That would at least point you in the direction of the oil pump or the int shaft bearings being seized. If it's the oil pump, might be worth pulling the pan to see what happened (foreign object lodged in the gear teeth?).

If it's the int shaft bearings, that pretty much means the engine has to come out and apart, and you might as well just start looking for a nice junkyard replacement engine.
 
Does it wiggle back and forth a tiny bit?
That would at least point you in the direction of the oil pump or the int shaft bearings being seized. If it's the oil pump, might be worth pulling the pan to see what happened (foreign object lodged in the gear teeth?).

If it's the int shaft bearings, that pretty much means the engine has to come out and apart, and you might as well just start looking for a nice junkyard replacement engine.
It won't budge at all. Is that more indicative of bearings?
The bearings can't be replaced with the engine in the car?
 
Oh so its okay to force the intermediate shaft to turn? I was thinking of putting a breaker bar on it.

That’s assuming it breaks free and turns easily at some point, which it doesn’t seem like it is.

Like they said, pull the oil pump drive gear out and see if it frees up. If not your intermediate shaft bearings are seized up and your rod and main bearings likely have major damage too and the engine comes out.

I guess if all else fails you could throw a breaker bar on it, but it’s a moot point. Still damaged.
 
It won't budge at all. Is that more indicative of bearings?
The bearings can't be replaced with the engine in the car?

I was thinking that if it was the oil pump that had seized or lodged on a piece of something, that between the slotted drive from the oil pump gear, and a tiny bit of lash on the gear teeth themselves, it might be able to turn some tiny amount.

If it doesn't budge even the tiniest bit, it would seem to indicate the bearings are seized.

I'm really not sure about replacing those with the engine in the car, the only time I've ever had them replaced was with the bare block at the machine shop. I know they have to be pressed in from the front, and sometimes reamed for proper fit after installation.

And as already mentioned, if they're bad, serious damage has also probably been done to the bottom end bearings - the rod bearings seem to be the first to suffer since they've got centrifugal forces flinging out the last remnants of their oil.

And unless you're doing something unusual (like trying to force triple the HP out of the thing) then you're probably better off finding a nice junkyard motor at this point.

Still worth the effort of trying to get that oil pump drive gear out, just to make sure that it's not the oil pump that is causing the issues. And once that's out, might as well try to budge that int shaft, just out of curiosity more than anything?

Prices on junkyard motors vary, from a few hundred to 7 - 800? If possible, consider taking a battery and a compression tester with you if it's a PnP style yard, do a quick compression check.
 
So I took all of your advice and bought another engine, but its a out of a 93 940. It has the head mounted distributor, looks to have some sort of air exhaust emissions set up and the accessories aren't mounted in the same place as the 240. Whats needed to get this to work in my 240? Couldn't find a swap thread on this.

If it can't swapped its not the end of the world. The 940 a bought isn't pretty, but runs excellent and was only $400 with the title.
 
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