This may be a long thread. 2010 S40 2.4 which up until last week did not have any issues. The car was towed due to parking in the wrong spot, while towing they cracked the oil pan. The tow company fixed it and it drove it for 5 days and more issues came up. My daughter was driving when the AC to the Alternator belt snapped and broke up. The car came to a stop, got it home, and installed 2 new belts and a new battery as the original was toast and not holding a charge. I am now not able to get the car to turn over. It sounds very odd and I am unsure as to what to do next. I do have a video for the sound. I am hoping someone here may be able to point me in the right direction.

This is the link as I am unable to attach it. please forgive me if this is not allowed.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4TgeyxDUohrXwRmq5

 

OOf, that sounds ugly. The first thing I'd do is grab / buy a mechanic's stethoscope (just a few bucks from Harbor Freight for a cheap but workable example). With that, you should be able to ID the source of the sound.

But based on your description, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the problem is (and was, when you replaced the battery) a bad alternator (specifically, bad bearing). You can verify this without a doubt with that stethoscope.

 

So we found that the timing jumped enough to have zero compression and looks like I may need to replace an engine or maybe I can replace the head and hope for the best. I'm getting quotes of $10k for an engine replacement with a used engine. Which cost 2x what the car cost us several months back.

My other option is to get some tools and replace the engine in my driveway.

 

Generally a slipped / skipped timing belt means bent valves (when they get into a fistfight with the pistons). But it's also possible that the timing belt slipped just enough to kill compression but NOT bend all the valves.

The quick / easy way to do a first-level test would be to use a borescope to see if there are telltale marks on the piston faces where the valves met their demise. You can buy a cheap though useable borescope for chump change by getting one that plugs into your smartphone / tablet's micro USB connector (around $10-15 IIRC).

IF (big, big if...) you don't see signs of damage, you could try to "just" swap the timing belt (and of course, the associated other bits like idlers and tensioners, and the water pump). You might just get lucky and spend a small fraction of the cost of a new head / engine.

If you DO find damage, I'd suggest swapping the head. Still a big, complicated job, but (IMHO) simpler than trying to deal with the barrel of worms you could run into with an engine swap.

 

My Mechanic found no compression and the valves are bent. My thought is to change the head, do the timing, and hope that the engine turns over.

 

Sounds like a good plan. Just make sure the head you get is 1) exactly the same, 2) in good condition, and 3) installed with all the right tools and techniques. I never did this job myownself, but know it's not trivial to get it right. But it's very much a DIY-able job, and should get you back on the road for not TOO much money and time.

Oh, and boys and girls, this is why you change that timing belt in the first place. ;-)

 

Yeah, we changed the timing belt at 200k car has 205.

But this would be a good time to remind the engineers who designed the engine and the bean counters who axed all-important metal fabrication don't skimp on plastic timing belt covers when you put other moving breakable parts next to them.

I know I would not be in this situation had the timing belt covers where metal and not plastic.