my sidekick needs help

[bootdsc]

OK so the timing belt on my 91 sidekick skipped a few teeth and that led to the valves hitting the pistons and bending. i'm not really sure where i'm going to find a new head/replacement parts and i'm fairly broke right now so i'm hoping for a junkyard pull. any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

,ps i don't know all that much about engines but i am a few steps up from a newbe

[Sully4x4]

You sure the engine isn't shot? Usually when the timing does anything besides what it is supposed to, the engine gets banged up pretty badly...

[Ditchfinder]

You dont need a new head just a few valves and maybe a guide, I havent seen that many of those at the yards. Suzuki motors are always gone. take the head off send it to the machine shop they will do the amount of work you can afford. You can get a head set fairly cheap, resurface the head if possible.
Did you put a new belt on and find that the valves are bent? I would put a belt on it and do a leak down test.

[DamnHippie]

Is it really possible to bend valves and have the pistons escape completely unharmed? It seems counterintuitive to me that the steel would bend but the aluminum piston would be undamaged.

I have a leakdown tester if you need to borrow one.

[Bill Potter]

Is it really possible to bend valves and have the pistons escape completely unharmed? It seems counterintuitive to me that the steel would bend but the aluminum piston would be undamaged.

I have a leakdown tester if you need to borrow one.

Or if the pistons hold up....that the rods would still be good....Bill

[Ditchfinder]

The awnsers to those questions are yes, and well yes.The valve stems tend to bend first due to how skinny they are, you can also damage the guides and seats but usually just the valves. The pistons usually get some marks on them but are ok, the thing you want to worry about is the rods they like to bend. I have seen holes in pistons but usually at redline, we had RSX engines at Acura, people miss shifted going into 6 and went into third or even first gear, it was ugly. I was seeing an engine every week.
I would pull the head and inspect,but put a belt on it and do a leak down test first ,it may not be that bad. it usually depends on how fast the engine was spinning.

[Ditchfinder]

you can get a reman head. spendy though.

[Allen Cox]

What year Sidekick? I know that several guys are putting the bigger Geo engines in there. Sounds odd, a bigger engine still being one from a Geo!

There are several things you can do. Drain the coolant and rip the head off. I can rebuild the head for you, and even get it machined. It'd bump the compression a bit.

You definitely have options.

[bootdsc]

Thanks for all the advice, what i ended up doing it taking off the head and found a nut inside one of the cylinders. The valves are not bent but the piston got banged up a bit..The piston is going to be cleaned up and the heads going back on so besides a few new hoses and gaskets my engine has survived having a nut sucked in the air intake lol. guess I'll see every one on the 16th