The engine in my sisters' 2001 ZX2 with AT died yesterday. The shop it was taken to claims the timing belt snapped and the engine is junk. IIRC, these engines are NOT interference engines, although many shop manulas say they are. However, the shop also claims the motor oil smelled burnt up.
What sort of issues could these indicate? I'm sort of interested in doing an engine swap with this car since low mileage engines can be found for cheap. However, the layout of our driveway is very cramped. My dad is opposed to the idea.
Used ZedeX engines are cheap regardless. Buy a new belt and tensioner and replace them, if it does not run put the new belt and tensioner on the junkyard engine and drive the car another 114,000 miles.
I'll give that a try, but again, since the car is on my dad's property, he may nix me doing the engine swap myself. I still wonder what the "burnt up" smell is the shop claims the oil has. My sisters say the oil was changed in May but they only put 3,000 on it. Would the smell indicate something worse like bottom end damage? Or would it have gotten hot when the timing belt snapped?
If the belt is snapped that is why it quit running. Change the belt, change the oil and drive the car.
They are non-interference. I have had two ZX2 with snapped belts.
I found a write-up for replacing the timing belt:
http://teamzx2.com/threads/117-Timing-Belt
The hard part is getting the car back home. I think my dad is freaking out too much over the "burnt oil smell" BS the shop is trying to feed him.
