what else may be damaged in this motor? I got a chance to pick up 79 coupe de elagance for a parts car:confused:

If it's an interferrence motor you've got bent and broken valves, holed pistons, maybe holed cylinder heads and bent rods. It depends on how tightly it was wound when it let go.

I'd say a bent valve at the worst. You might be able to put a timing chain in it and be good to go. It would be nice to know if it was running hard at the time or if it just jumped when shutting the car off. If you really liked the car it's not hard to find used engines pretty cheap.

Even an old Ford Falcon is a multi-thousand dollar disaster when the timing belt breaks.

The old Falcoon's haha, when they use a belt it's disposeable; when it's built to last , they use a chain. These late 70's dogs are so low compression they are almost non-interference anyway. I had a Chevy once that the timing chain got so loose it wore a hole through the timing cover but didn't jump. I have only had one car that ever jumped a tooth. It was a 403 Olds and it didn't damage anything. I wouldn't be surprised if that 79 Deville just needs an ignition module or something . You have to like the car to invest the time in it anyway and used engines are very cheap too. I say if the body and interior are mint it should be worth fixing. If it looks like it hasn't been maintained very well, then there could be a lot of other problems that will surface after you get it running.