Camshaft bad?

Would timing belt failure cause the camshaft to be bad? The cam looks good and spins in its journals, but three bent valves and dented lifters make me wonder.

WUT?

lol you serious?

joking aside
if physical timing goes bad on a TDI and most cars, you bend valves, possible piston damage, possible connecting rod damage, crank damage, and yes if its sever enough to dent the lifters, your cam can be damaged as well.
Regardless, your pulling the head, pull the oil pan as well and drop the connecting rod caps and inspect the crank and the bearings for abnormal wear, get a gauge block and measure the block height to the TDC of each piston. Pick up a set of calipers and measure each cam lobe and base.
OR you can just send the entire thing to Frank and have him rebuild it for you or buy one from him. Check out his CNC porting job he is doing now.
Good luck, your going to need it.
Once you pull the head, its not difficult to pull the pistons. leave the crank in place and just measure it!
again, good luck

Regardless of whether the cam itself is bad, the fact that you have bad lifters and must replace them, as well as the oft noted caution to replace the cam and lifters as a set, dictates just get a complete and correct set of new lifters and a new cam to go with them.

Do some research on past posts concerning cam and lifter replacement and you will see the information.

While you are at it, since you have messed up valves as well, you would be well advised to just send the head off to Frank (aka Franko6) to be worked. He is not cheap, and the work is first class. You will get back an essentially zero-timed head without worries for future use. It really is the best value and comes with certain peace of mind for no extra charge.

While the head is off getting refurbished, you can then concentrate on what the block will need: just new con rods, or more than that? If you want the repaired engine to last more than 10k miles, then do all the necessary things to make it right. If you don't care because you are just going to flip the car to an unsuspecting suc.. er buyer, then shame on you. Don't do anything and sell it cheap to someone who will do the right thing.

Cheers,

PH

Thanks for the info!

Fyi you can get a whole used engine for around 800 and have it shipped for around 200. Keep that in mind for pricing vs repair. It might still need a cam and it will need a timing belt but it won't need head work or lower end.

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I have an OEM VW head complete with cam and lifters that I can sell you. Let me know if you are interested.

I am here if you need me...