Sierra Twin Cam Question

[danburger28]

Yesterday, whilst on route to pick up some new wheels, the timing chain on my Sierra's engine decided to snap/come off, seizing the engine. Not very handy in the outside lane of the M5!
Ive now played with it, and the bottom half turns over on the starter motor, spins all the pulleys freely, water pump etc.
Ive taken the cam cover off, and timing chain cover off(which was in two pieces), and the little cog looks like this

rest of engine


Ive tried undoing the head bolts, so I can inspect further, but I cant shift them.
So the question really is, in everybodys experience, is the engine now likely to be totally borked?Bent valves etc etc.Because if its pretty likely its nackered, ill just get another engine, rather than take the car somewhere to have the bolts undone, just to find more broken bits. I'm not sure if its a non interference type, which would be ok I suppose, no damage?
Whats peoples experience on this please?
Thanks

[Robinxr4i]

I've never heard that the Twink is a non interference engine, I would imagine you'll have caused some damage. I'd persevere with the head bolts and try and get them off yourself, it'll be pretty easy to work out if there is any damage and whether it's terminal or not.

Personally if the engine is a good engine, which uses little oil and is quiet, I'd repair it. You may end up getting a lemon and believe me there is nothing worse than fitting a dud engine! The cambelt on my missus Peugeot 205 snapped recently and I ended up fixing the engine new valves, belt kit and headset, the engine is really quite and uses no oil now as I ended up replacing the valve stem seal. Plus there was the satisfaction of fixing it myself and seeing it run again ;D

The only thing that would put me off fixing a twink would be the price of a new timing chain kit.

....or uses this as an excuse to fit a 2.0 or 2.3 16v engine from a Scorpio?

[danburger28]

To be honest, I think this engine was a bit crappy. Its the slowest one Ive ever had, by some way, and it had that 'ticky' noise quite often, that came and went.And come to think of it, had a missfire sometimes too.Think I may have answered my own question here.Was thinking about boa transplant, but sort of bought a GT the other day, so best fix with the cheaper option in mind!Nice idea though. ;D

[danburger28]

Actually, secondary question.If I buy an engine from another car, will this affect the engine managment at all?Do I need the ecu from the donor car to make the donor engine run, or will the one I have already work with the engine from another car, being that they're the same.

[Steve]

Pretty sure the only difference between ECUs is if the car is fitted with a lambda sensor or not so swapping engines shouldnt be a big problem and they don't need reprograming

[Robinxr4i]

^^^^ What Steve said, it's only later stuff with PATS which needs programming and all that jazz.

[danburger28]

Cool, cheers chaps.

[penrhynrallycentre]

Really not worthrebuilding it at all just the new headasket,new bolts timing chain and sproket will cost you far more than a s/h engine would,as regards changing engines nad ecu's never had a problem at all with a jelly mould !!

Dave

[ChasR]

As risky as it is I would go with a secondhand engine from your description, especially by the time the head is rebuilt, new chain and tensioners, head gasket etc.

[DWDarkWheels]

I've heard of the twin-cam snapping the chain on a couple of work colleagues' Sierras years ago. Something tells me valves got bent.
Chains last a good while, but they're still a service item. If you get another engine with unknown history, same as with timing belt, change it for peace of mind.