Hey folks, howdy from TX, my first post here, got a 95 Expo with a 2.4, the other day my wife noticed a sound and loss of power, then a few days later it appeared the timing belt was breaking, pieces of rubber were breaking out of the cover, but all I found was a small cut in the timing belt. What I found were pieces of the balance shaft belt, I checked the cam timing and it was about 12 degrees of crank advanced, I guess the other day when it lost power and made a noise the timing belt jumped, probably due to the balance shaft belt shredding.

Now the question, now the cam timing is off about 12 degrees, and it has been running like that, smooth with a very hard idle, so I don't think any valves were bent. Are these engines prone to valve bendage?
Thanks for the help.

Hi, I'm not familiar wiyh your car, but it seems you are very lucky. Iwouldnt drive any further untill you have replaced those belts and reset the timing. Get a compresion test done ,this should tell you if any valves got bent. May pay to replace the belt idler and tensioner along with the water pump at the same time.
Cheers Gerry

Well the belts are on, the balance shaft belt was in pieces. the WP and T-belt were fairly new, the pulleys are OK. I don't see us keeping this car much longer, if we do it will need a lot of work anyway, I'll deal with it then.

I've done this job before but I don't remember it being this hard. I'm gettin old I guess.