Postby Spyrogyra » May 25th, 2005, 6:45 am
hehh, whoo well you asked a good question, I will attempt to answer it
The timing belt co-ordinates the running of the engine. it's basically a belt with "teeth" that links the crankshaft in the block to the camshaft in the engine head via a group of gears, making sure that the camshaft is opening and closing valves at the right time and that the pistons are in the proper position for each stroke.
If you timing belt (or chain in some cars) goes or the tensioner goes, what will happen is the engine will stop running in sequence, but becasue the camshaft and the pistons don't stop turning right away, they keep spining, moving pistons and opening valves. Without the belt controlling this movenent it's possible that a valve may be open when a piston is at the top of a stroke, this will damage the valve and the piston or a few valves and more than one piston.