I have a 89 xt6, and i just figured out that the timing belt is broken on the drivers side. i am wondering if i should rebuild the engine completely including bore and rods or if i should just rebuild the heads.

Unless the ER27 is different than its EA82 little brother, its a non-interference engine, so there is no damage when the timing belt breaks. So if the engine is showing no other signs of needing a rebuild I wouldn't open it up.

 

Gary

 

P.S. it would be a good idea to check/replace a few thing while you are doing the belts, tensioners, water pump, oil seals and such.

There would be absolutely no need to overhaul the 2.7 motor because of a broken timing belt.

 

That being said, I would probabably go over and above the normal service interval for the vehicle - bumping up to (at least) the next 60K items. This could include oil pump/seals, water pump, oil seals etc. In other words, anything that is easy to get to with the belt covers off, that is coming up fast on the maintenance schedule.

Speaking of the belt covers, you may consider running your belts naked (without covers). Someone posted recently that the covers on the 2.7 are just as useless as on the 1.8. Many of us run these motors without covers, without any problems, and with the advantage of much easier servicing.

good luck, John

there is no possibility of engine damage due to a broken belt on an XT6. if someone told you there is, then they either don't know or are lying. i own a bunch of these things and have done timing belts about 50 times.

 

put new timing belts on and go to town. heed the last persons advice, change everything up front while the timing belts are off - cam seals, crank seal, oil pump seal and water pump. you can buy all these items for like 30 dollars from www.thepartsbin.com . if you don't change this stuff now, then you'll be charged 200 dollars again just to replace a 5 dollar cam seal. or 200 dollars to replace a 16 dollar water pump because they'll have to remove the timing belts to get to them.