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[Proz]

IMHO there is insufficient info for any even "educated" guesswork ..

If the cambelt had failed at 70 mph ... I'm certain you would have heard the god forsaken racket as the pistons chewed the valves .. you don't mention any noise at all ...

The cambelt has nothing to do with the starter motor, if the starter was turning the engine with no cambelt .. you would still hear the pistons talking to the valves ..

It is more likely, as you heard no noise .. to be a failure that has caused either a loss of spark or a loss of fuel.

IMHO the starter motor sounds like a secondary fault .... unless the flywheel has become detached !!

First thing is to properly remove bits to examine the cam belt. Then check why the starter is not turning the engine.

Once those are sorted proper diagnostics can begin ...

I agree about the guess work , certainly need covers removing at least , however  , I had a cam belt failure and i assure you i heard no noise at all ... this was in a 2 ltr though .
I was quite happily driving along at 60 ish then all of a sudden the dahboard all lit up and car died .
There was no thumps or bangs at all .
Greenflag turned up and turned starter and it was very fast turning obviously because it was only the bottom half turning but even then there was no noises ...took cover off and belt was snapped ,
What im getting at is there doesnt have to be all bangs and thuds as there was nothing at all with mine which suprised me as i've never had a belt fail and i did assume there would be lots of noise .
Just the silence of a dead engine 

[Entwood]

IMHO there is insufficient info for any even "educated" guesswork ..

If the cambelt had failed at 70 mph ... I'm certain you would have heard the god forsaken racket as the pistons chewed the valves .. you don't mention any noise at all ...

The cambelt has nothing to do with the starter motor, if the starter was turning the engine with no cambelt .. you would still hear the pistons talking to the valves ..

It is more likely, as you heard no noise .. to be a failure that has caused either a loss of spark or a loss of fuel.

IMHO the starter motor sounds like a secondary fault .... unless the flywheel has become detached !!

First thing is to properly remove bits to examine the cam belt. Then check why the starter is not turning the engine.

Once those are sorted proper diagnostics can begin ...

I agree about the guess work , certainly need covers removing at least , however  , I had a cam belt failure and i assure you i heard no noise at all ... this was in a 2 ltr though .
I was quite happily driving along at 60 ish then all of a sudden the dahboard all lit up and car died .
There was no thumps or bangs at all .
Greenflag turned up and turned starter and it was very fast turning obviously because it was only the bottom half turning but even then there was no noises ...took cover off and belt was snapped ,
What im getting at is there doesnt have to be all bangs and thuds as there was nothing at all with mine which suprised me as i've never had a belt fail and i did assume there would be lots of noise .
Just the silence of a dead engine 

OK perhaps my assumptions are wrong ... .. in all the years of mishaps I've had (admittedly not with an Omega) something as major as the pistons having a conversation with the valves made so much racket it was obvious ...

If you are right .... then it is possibly a cam belt and serious valve damge .. but done quietly !!

[Proz]

IMHO there is insufficient info for any even "educated" guesswork ..

If the cambelt had failed at 70 mph ... I'm certain you would have heard the god forsaken racket as the pistons chewed the valves .. you don't mention any noise at all ...

The cambelt has nothing to do with the starter motor, if the starter was turning the engine with no cambelt .. you would still hear the pistons talking to the valves ..

It is more likely, as you heard no noise .. to be a failure that has caused either a loss of spark or a loss of fuel.

IMHO the starter motor sounds like a secondary fault .... unless the flywheel has become detached !!

First thing is to properly remove bits to examine the cam belt. Then check why the starter is not turning the engine.

Once those are sorted proper diagnostics can begin ...

I agree about the guess work , certainly need covers removing at least , however  , I had a cam belt failure and i assure you i heard no noise at all ... this was in a 2 ltr though .
I was quite happily driving along at 60 ish then all of a sudden the dahboard all lit up and car died .
There was no thumps or bangs at all .
Greenflag turned up and turned starter and it was very fast turning obviously because it was only the bottom half turning but even then there was no noises ...took cover off and belt was snapped ,
What im getting at is there doesnt have to be all bangs and thuds as there was nothing at all with mine which suprised me as i've never had a belt fail and i did assume there would be lots of noise .
Just the silence of a dead engine 

OK perhaps my assumptions are wrong ... .. in all the years of mishaps I've had (admittedly not with an Omega) something as major as the pistons having a conversation with the valves made so much racket it was obvious ...

If you are right .... then it is possibly a cam belt and serious valve damge .. but done quietly !!

I was very very suprised there was no noise ... im not saying thats normal mind you but thats how it was with my 2ltr ( yes the one with a third of the engine missing  ) . This was just a month or two before i found this site if i remember correctly .
I had assumed there would be all kinds of noises when valves and pistons met .... i was really suprised to see the belt broken once cover was removed but knew it was game over straight away at that point   .
I then had an argument with the garage that fitted it only 14 months and 4000 miles earlier

[youth]

my first two points to check would be belt and starter itself and find out if thats engaging and i know from replacing my enine found out that the crank sensor was faulty and the car wouldnt engage starter or create a spark hope this helps

[dbug]

my first two points to check would be belt and starter itself and find out if thats engaging and i know from replacing my enine found out that the crank sensor was faulty and the car wouldnt engage starter or create a spark hope this helps

Faulty crank sensor won't stop engine turning over  only stops it starting.

[Chris_H]

IMHO there is insufficient info for any even "educated" guesswork ..

If the cambelt had failed at 70 mph ... I'm certain you would have heard the god forsaken racket as the pistons chewed the valves .. you don't mention any noise at all ...

The cambelt has nothing to do with the starter motor, if the starter was turning the engine with no cambelt .. you would still hear the pistons talking to the valves ..

It is more likely, as you heard no noise .. to be a failure that has caused either a loss of spark or a loss of fuel.

IMHO the starter motor sounds like a secondary fault .... unless the flywheel has become detached !!

First thing is to properly remove bits to examine the cam belt. Then check why the starter is not turning the engine.

Once those are sorted proper diagnostics can begin ...

I agree about the guess work , certainly need covers removing at least , however  , I had a cam belt failure and i assure you i heard no noise at all ... this was in a 2 ltr though .
I was quite happily driving along at 60 ish then all of a sudden the dahboard all lit up and car died .
There was no thumps or bangs at all .
Greenflag turned up and turned starter and it was very fast turning obviously because it was only the bottom half turning but even then there was no noises ...took cover off and belt was snapped ,
What im getting at is there doesnt have to be all bangs and thuds as there was nothing at all with mine which suprised me as i've never had a belt fail and i did assume there would be lots of noise .
Just the silence of a dead engine 

OK perhaps my assumptions are wrong ... .. in all the years of mishaps I've had (admittedly not with an Omega) something as major as the pistons having a conversation with the valves made so much racket it was obvious ...

If you are right .... then it is possibly a cam belt and serious valve damge .. but done quietly !!

I don't know if they make the valve necks soft deliberately to prevent them breaking off, but I've repaired an engine where two valve heads broke off and one smashed a piston but the driver was not aware of any untoward noises, just a loss of power.  And that was in a car that had a lot less sound-proofing than an Omega!

[MICHELINMAN]

There does not have to be a lot of noise when a timing belt snaps!
There was no sound at all when mines broke on an old Sierra I had.
If anything, it felt like the car had just run out of petrol...it just died.

Which leads me to a point no one has raised on this thread :question

Fuel supply problem :-/
Has it run out of gas?
When was the tank last filled?
Sender unit in tank giving false reading on dash?
Leak in tank or fuel line?
Blocked fuel filter?

But being honest, sounds like the belt has gone
££££££££££££

[Andy B]

There does not have to be a lot of noise when a timing belt snaps!
There was no sound at all when mines broke on an old Sierra I had. ......

If you had a Pinto engine it wouldn't make a noise because the valves clear the pistons ie it's a 'safe engine'  but on a V6 Omega, the valves won't clear the pistons. 

[MICHELINMAN]

Point accepted
what do you think about the possible loss of fuel :question

[Lazydocker]

Point accepted
what do you think about the possible loss of fuel :question

I think it's a wild stab in the dark! Although not impossible

It does sound most like the belt but we need Chris to check whether the Crank is actually turning when cranking the engine

[Brikhead]

IMHO there is insufficient info for any even "educated" guesswork ..

No need for guess work... the mechanic sent by the A.A. (with no interest in fixing the car, so no need to lie!) has already diagnosed cam belt failure, also the original poster has been advised how to confirm this we just need to wait for him to let us know.

When a timing belt snaps the pistons only hit the valves (or some of the valves) once, the valves are then bent out of the way so the next time the piston comes up there is no contact, so no noise.

I still have a spare 2.5 engine available...
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1297614167
... open to offers!

[chrispin]

Thanks everyone for all your input
1st job i will get the covers off the cam and have a look

I was driving back from birmingham when the engine died !!!
I see Thats where Entwood lives

Plenty of fuel in the car range said 140 miles ! and about 1/4 tank new fuel filter on service no leaks that i cud see or smell

I will have fist dibs on the engine if mine is a dead donkey !
Anyone know how easy they are to transplant !

 along with the tow bar and the lights on my car point to the floor have not been able to find a fault yet so poss controler

[Kevin Wood]

If it's the worst case scenario of a cam belt failure replacing / refurbing the cylinder heads would be less work than swapping the whole engine.

Kevin

[chrispin]

Maybe for someone who has done one before but i have not!!  I stretched my mechanics stripping back the passenger side of the engine to get to the spark plugs and replacing the leads crawling under the back of the car to change the fuel filter I dont have a great array of tools either most of the general stuff

assuming its the cam belt and stuffed 24 valves what else can go wrong ? need replacing ?

If i get the parts are there any local mechanics or mobile peeps that wud be able to do this kind of thing VX are theatening £1800
Cam belt change is about £235 2 second hand heads with valves are £145 + p&p ebay + Gaskit kit but would need an experianced mechanic to line everything up and do head bolts torque settings etc etc  :-/   

[hoofing it]

get the covers off and have a look the cambelt might not be broken but it might of stripped the teeth from it.
What you've got to mind is pistons are alloy and the valves are hardened steel so you might not feel them hitting.
Anyway heres hoping its nothing to bad