'98 2.4 dohc: interference if timing belt breaks?

QuestionEdit

My neighbor has a 98 dodge stratus. 2.4 dohc. Timing belt broke while driving. Is it possible that the valves or head was damaged? Would like to know before I attempt to just replace belt. Thanks Kevin

AnswerEdit

Hi Kevin, The manual is interesting on this. The pistons are designed to allow non-interference with the valves, so that sounds good. But in the section about aligning the the timing marks it says to do such alignment by turning the crankshaft, and not to rotate the camshafts independently of oneanother when the belt is removed as valve-to-valve interference can occur. So I believe that the belt breaking while at high rpm would not have caused any damage as both cam shafts would have stopped at the same moment, and the pistons wouldn't have interfered with the valves in any case. Please let me know if you learn otherwise. If you would like the pages about the timing belt r & r let me know your email address and I can send you pages from the '04 manual which I have on a CD. Ask a NEW question, and in the text area tell me the address. Then click on the box to make the question PRIVATE. Please 'rate' my answer (see below). Thanks, Roland