Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance broken timing belt

This may be a stupid question but I'm going to ask anyway. My timing belt broke today on my 98. Can this cause any damage to the motor? This has happened to me before on a different car. My first car had a timing chain but a plastic timing gear. The timing gear broke or got stripped out or something and it bent every rod in the engine. Now I know why they reccomend changing the timing belt at certain intervals.

Odds are that the only thing that broke was the belt itself, Quite a few people on here, including me, have had a timing belt break on them without any engine damage occuring. Ford and a couple of other sources say that we have an interference engine, but real world experiences seem to beg the differ. Do you feel a little better now?

its regular maitenence for a timing belt at about 100K miles. Mine broke at 101K I could have made it last about 2K miles longer, But I had just gotten the car, Wanted to see how powerful it was Anyways, it was about 700$ to fix. Any It wont cause any other damage to the engine. UNLESS, Im told that if you try to crank the engine and start it back up after it breaks, then there is the possibility of bending your valves. I dont know how, but I guess its possible. Only if you crank the starter a lot though.