change that timing belt usually every 80,000 miles. make sure its a neweer one on the replacement engine, its a lot easier to change not in the car. at 72K on the new engine its quite close to time for a belt but if the waterpump has been done that means the timing belt was off. basic maintenance goes a long way. love your car and it will love you back. kudos for not scrapping her!

 

Firstly. Welcome to PassatWorld.

You will want to do quite a bit of searching and reading on the forum, there have been plenty of threads on
timing belt among many topics over the last year. It is a shame you didn't start posting when you got the Passat.
Keep all maintenance up to date, scan for fault codes regularly and post them here if you don't fully understand them.
Always use the correct fluids that comply with VW Spec., throughout the car.

Hope everything goes well with the car from now on. Good luck.

 

A new engine is usually overkill for a busted t-belt. Has the shop scoped out the cyl. and decided the pistons are horribly damaged? Usually the most damage done to the pistons is a few dents in the top, which means all you need is the head removed and the busted valves replaced; that's is a lot cheaper than a complete engine swap.

 

The whole story is probably that you experienced the timing belt failure because your lack of oil pressure (the STOP engine msg) which melted the camshafts to the the head. If this is the case, you either stripped the teeth on the belt (if the belt was weak) or just broke the key on the cam gear. To have fixed your engine, you would have need a new head, complete with all the parts. Most mechanics prefer to change the whole engine at this point...
BEFORE you install the engine, make sure the mechanic shop removes the oil pan and cleans/replaces the oil strainer. It's more important IMO to do this now, than install the new t belt.

 

Usually 2-4 valves are broken, $5-10 each + headgasket +timing belt set. I estimate parts $350. Only once I replaced all 16 valves. Sometimes engine is interference, but valves are still OK. I would install new timing belt and checked compression.

 

Are you talking about used valves at those prices? And there are 20, not 16.

 

Hmm. Actually the engine is always an interference engine. I'd heard elsewhere that, very rarely, the belt fails at just the right moment not to damage valves, but I've never heard of that actually happening. Can anyone cite an example?

OTOH, if the engine failed in the way gigi123 describes, putting a new belt on might just shred the new belt. I'd confirm the valve condition before trying a new belt.

 

Hmm. Actually the engine is always an interference engine. I'd heard elsewhere that, very rarely, the belt fails at just the right moment not to damage valves, but I've never heard of that actually happening. Can anyone cite an example?

This site marks 02 Dodge Neon as interference engine:
Gates Part Locator & Interchange
I was repairing a Neon, belt broke or jumped a few teeth, but valves were OK.

 

Further more you would likely need valve guides and what not as well. There could even be more damage depending on where the valve bent.

 

all 20 valves $77 on ebay

 

Ooh, eBay - I hear they make great stuff!

 

No problem, you can buy valves from a dealer for $50 a valve, they are gold plated and made of unbreakable spaceship alloy.

 

There are some parts that I'm extra cautious about, such as rod bolts, timing components, and valves. As the hottest parts in the engine and highly stressed, I'd learn the origin of those things before installing them.

 

Where do you buy valves? I buy from engine parts store.
I bought a few timing chain and belt kits from ebay, they were fine.

 

Personally, I buy important parts from a VW dealer, or VW original parts from an online vendor. Some non-critical parts I'll buy aftermarket from an online vendor. 30+ plus years of driving VW's, and I've learned my lesson.

 

Exhaust valves are $99.92 each at VW dealer and intake $52.53. Multiply exhaust by 8 and intake by 12 and you get the dealer price for all the valves. Compare this with $ 77. Makes one wonder why such big difference.
On an engine that failed like I said, you need 8 exhaust valves and 4 intake at least.

 

If the OP has any mechanical aptitude, they could remove the head and have it rebuilt. While it was out, they could then also replace the oil pump suction screen. Neither are hard to do, you just need time, tools and to keep things organized.

 

If the belt jumped a few or several teeth while driving, all 8 exhaust valves would be damaged and all intake valves should be OK.
If the belt broke while driving, there would be a random number (could be all) of both exhaust and intake valves damaged.
Although possible it would be extremely unlikely to have 8 exhaust and 4 intake valves damaged.

I wouldn't buy valves from a dealer, but I would only recommend OEM valves.

 

Thanks for all your input guys!
Unfortunately, the used engine has already been ordered so I'll probably have the car within the next couple of days.

And as gigi123 mentioned, the mechanic did suggest swapping out the engine over getting a rebuilt head even though I am not exactly sure how much damage is done.
I might have to contact them about cleaning out the oil pan; i hope they don't charge me a fortune to do it.

I will keep you guys posted on what happens!

 

With the engine out of the car, it will be simple to replace the oil pump suction screen. It will be just removal of about 20 bolts.

 

If your mechanic is not a VW specialist, YOU need to tell him that when (if he replaces the oil pump screen) he installs back the oil pan, the back of the oil pan should be in line (flushed) with the block. The bolts provide some movement, and a lot of mechanics don't realize that until the engine is ready to be mated to the transmission.

 

He's the only one that specializes in German cars around here so i trust he knows what he's doing. But i'll make sure to tell him that!

 

If you want to know what happened to your engine, you can tell the mechanic to remove the bolt for the cam gear (1 minute job). If they key is broken, you would have melted/seized cams, bent valves and maybe more damage inside. Most shops would recommend an engine at this point, due to cost of labor and parts to fix yours.
So you should feel good about your mechanic, so far.

 

A broken key doesn't tell you anything you don't already know, it just means something bad has happened. A key could break if the pulley bolt had not been correctly torqued.
If the key is not broken, the cam could still be siezed and/or broken.

 

The 1.8T oil pan is a little different than the V6. The rear edge of the pan is even (flush) with the rear edge of the block. There are two bolts that have to be accessed through windows in the bell housing and a notch in the flywheel.

 

In your pic, loot at the upper oil pan. It has to be in a straight line with the block. If I remember right, on a V6 there are guides/dowels that align the upper oil pan with the block, so there is only one way to install it. On a 4 cyl, there are no dowels, and the oil pan can move around a little bit due to bolts holes being a little bit bigger than the bolts. Not much, but enough.

 

oh, that makes sense. thanks much - to Zak as well.
-
Edit:
The V6 engine's oil pan has more than plenty "clearance" in relation to the transmission, that's why I didn't understand.

Thanks again.

 

Ok sorry it took me a couple of days but I got my car back and everything looks okay! It feels lighter and a lot more quiet than before.

The only thing is the odometer is still at 124,xxx even though the new engine has 72,000 miles on it. The guy told me that has something to do with the gauge(?)
inside but it's not a big problem. Is this something I have to worry about or do I just have to keep track of the mileage with the old odometer?
Oh and he also said I might need new motor mounts in the near future but it's fine right now and i don't planning on racing anytime soon.

I can't think of anything else wrong with the car and i'm gonna have it back at the shop couple of weeks from now to check up on everything.
Thank you so much for your help guys!

 

The mileage is embedded in the instrument cluster and cannot be changed. Nor should it, as the car still has 124K on it. You were foolish to drop a replacement engine onto bad mounts. Now you have to pay double labor; and you should do so, before the excess movement damages your exhaust flex joint.

 

Ok that makes sense about the mileage. But i'm pretty new at this car stuff and the motor mounts were the last thing on my mind! Plus i checked with the mechanic and the engine didn't move a whole lot in high rpm so that should give me enough time to save up for new ones.

 

Think about how it moves as you start and stop. Sooner is better.

 

Mechanic should give you a discount for the mount labor when you do it IF he didn't bring it up while you had a chance to tell him to do them. Telling you after the fact is like having a heart bypass and the doc telling you he saw a tumor in your gut but he left it in there.

 

I totally agree! He didn't tell me i needed new mounts til i went to pick up the car. And i'm pretty sure they weren't a problem before I had the car fixed.
I called him today and he quoted me $500 for changing all 4 (?) mounts. My next step is gonna be calling the VW dealership to see how much THEY'LL charge because I have a couple of discount coupons from them (whichever one is cheaper).
If not, I'll see if a more car-friendly friend can help me change the mounts using the in-depth guides i found on this forum.

 

Just a suggestion (I know people on this forum like to keep their cars in tip top shape so they won't agree with this). Leave them alone. If you say this guy is a VW mechanic, he probably knows what he is saying. Mostly because he has probably seen a lot worse on other cars.

 

I want to leave them alone and they don't seem to bad for now. But i'm just worried if there will be any major consequences if i wait too long!