300tdi timing question

[Dogsbreath]

Just got the Disco 1 back on the road, long story short,

Driving to work early Dec, get about 5 miles down the road and cloud of white smoke following me, temperature gauge starts heading north, switched off before it got two thirds of the way up, suspect head gasket gone, piggy back into my yard then drive into repair shop, engine starting and running fine, pull head off to find inlet valves had been kissing pistons, rocker shaft snapped under pedestal and cracked head.

With me so far :)

Last week finally get new head, shaft and gaskets etc together, pull timing cover off and find injector timing is fine but valve timing is out one tooth :eek:

Question, Is it possible for the valve timing to jump ?, the belt was replaced about 6000 miles ago and the engine always felt like it was down on power since. Am suspecting the workmanship of the belt change as 3 timing cover bolts were missing and the main crankshaft bolt only needed a light tap to come loose.

[d1scv]

Looks like a 'chicken and egg' here.
Think it doubtful belt jumped by itself.
Wonder if:
a] timing had been out all along and caused valve strike- brought on by carbon build up on piston

b] timing gear problem caused cam to jam for a second- pulling the belt round one tooth

A careful look at belt might give a clue. BUT if crank bolt was loose I'd tend to suspect original work

[bilge rat]

A, looks suspect iff the running problem started after you had the work done. alan....

[emaze]

Do you recall which way the timing (jumped tooth?) was out.
If the inlets are hitting the pistons, this means the valves are opening early which then means the belt has jumped "backwards".
If it had been the exhaust valves hitting the pistons the belt has jumped forwards, perhaps a more possible event.
However, I would strongly suggest the timing has been out since the belt was replaced. The valve overlap on those engines means that the timing is critical, and one tooth out can cause problems especially if the valve clearance is on the tight side.
I saw one which had stripped the rocker shaft pedestal hold down threads in the head due to incorrect timing allowing valves to hit the pistons.
cheers emaze

[Dogsbreath]

Thanks for the replies, it was definately the inlet valves that were hitting, once all the bills come in we're going to front the place that did the work originally and see about some compo, wish me luck :)