This happens




Because of this:





What do you reckon ? Snapped camshaft ?
Needless to say the familiar rattle rattle rattle commonly known as valves kissing pistons was heard, can won't turn over so I guess the belt has lost a few teeth in the process too....

Where's the vodka bottle ???

 

ooooooouch!!

 

OOOOOUCH even ! Just spent a fair wedge since the cambelt slipped, new valves, guides, etc...

Took it for a test drive to sort out a mis-fire and rattle rattle rattle Misfire is least of my problems now !!!

 

Done the same on my old car

 

That looks expensive!!

 

aaawww mate ... sorry to hear it ..... hope its nothing bad

 

I hope so too, but it sounded like a bag of nails .... you know the story !

Best hope is that only the inlet is affected and the exhaust valves are ok, but as soon as the belt started slipping - who knows

Maybe NOS on the SAAB is the best way forward for thrills now

 

I have a cam you can have, dunno if it 2wd or 4wd though.

You don't seem to be having much luck!

If yo need any help, let me know.

 

Thanks craig, I will take the cam cover off tomorrow night if I get a chance and see what the damage is, but I can feel a phone call to woodford along the lines of -

"The usual please, you have the credit card number..."

 

good jaysus frog thats not nice is that the cam that had the pully stuck tight on it

 

why is the left pulley not in line with the right ??????? or is it me ????

mark

 

think thats what he means ...

 

Errr.... mate..... Could that be the reason for the first picture???? Ya know... the one with the "On Tow" sign...

Ok.... it's kinda late so I will forgive you this time! Ha ha ha...

 

lol just looked agian i thought you said do you think its a snapped cam belt yeh its been a long day

sorry about your car

mark

 

You forgiven my son!! LOL

 

unlucky mate

 

thats what id be doin

 

if its the same thing that happened to my mates cos, you might be lucky, as the centre cam-cap threads had stripped, which let the cam move and snap like a carrot in the middle, but due to the fact that the cam was lifted slightly off the followers, no valve damage occured. hope it turns out ok for you

 

I hate seeing pictures like these i gives me a chill up my spine

I sincerely hope it all goes ok for you mate, fingers crossed eh

Dave

 

Oh and check the studs for the cam caps, they may have pulled out of the head, mine did it 2 weeks ago, it was seconds away from snapping the cam when i shut it down

 

Holy Shit m8

 

Thanks guys, the cam cover will be off tonite so I'll be able to report back on what happened.
Gutted, absolutely gutted - car's been off the road for a year already, just had the head rebuilt and now this !

 

Hmmm, who rebuilt the head?

Did they tighten the cam down correctly?

Good luck

 

Well, in truth I did !

Had it stripped and rebuilt without cams by an engineering company (valves, guides, seals, clean and reface).

Only have myself to blame ! Simple as that

 

Frog mate, if theres anything I can do to help give me a shout mate, even if its just a constant flow of tea or a punch bag

 

Cheers Paddy, thing is, I am not very good at asking for help, I value my personal time a lot and don't like to intrude on others

But I'll bear you in mind if I need something to punch hard !

 

You sure it's not just that bolt that holds the pully on? From what I can see, the amount of cam sticking out of the head looks about right but it is hard to see...

Shit luck mate.

 

Could be steve, not sure until I have the cover off, if that was the case I would expect the starter motor to turn the engine over and the pulley to turn around the cam without driving it, at the moment, it sounds like the crank is turning around with no effect on the cambelt - I think the camshaft broke, seized (maybe) and stripped belt teeth at the crankshaft end

Shit luck indeed - teach me to DIY this kinda thing.

You live and learn I suppose

So, what's the correct way of putting a cam back in then ? Fully tighten the first cam cap, then second, third and fourth, or, do them up slowly and evenly working from front to back until they are all tight ?

I think I did the exhause the first way and the inlet the second, thinking it would be less stress on the camshaft

I am going to have to find out if I get round to repairing it...

 

can I highly reccomend a copy of the cosworth manual, I got mine from woodford garage motorsport for a very reasonable £50, tells you everything you need to know as with all bolts/nuts in a engine, you should tighten them using a good torque wrench, and in a sequence so you are working from the middle out, doing each bolt up in order a bit, until final torque is reached
DIY is a good way to learn all about your car, just don't be afraid to ask questions or stop if you dont know what you are doing

 

 

Thanks RWD_cossie_wil, I have the manuals, etc... not sure your method applies to cam caps though as the manual says to start with no 1.

Anyway, got the cam cover off to find out what happened, as steve said, it's the pulley that's come off the camshaft, the screw came off in my hand and I have lost the little metal key that goes in the camshaft.
Why that happened, I am not sure, I torqued it up properly, are you supposed to use threadlock on these ?

With all the plugs in, I can turn the engine over by hand real easy, I can hear a little air hiss from the valves where they are slightly open. All the valves seem to be pretty much all closed (see pic below if the camshaft position tells you something), certainly can't feel any contact or anything.



What I can't understand, is that when I tried to re-start the car last night, it sounded like the bottom end was going on the starter, but not driving the cams, I first thought I had lost teeth on the belt, but that looks fine ! I don't get it.

What next ? Head off ? What can I do to check if anything is broken/bent without taking the head off ?

Your help much appreciated.
Greg

 

Put the cam belt back on and get a compression test done I guess...

 

Could you see that it wasn't turning the cam gears cause one should have turned and the other one wouldn't because the key was gone.

 

yes m8 u should use loctite me n stu used loads on my engine evry nut and bolt

 

Cheers guys,

Steve, I was wondering if a compression test could be done without turning the engine over ? eg remove all the cams so the valves are closed and inject air under pressure via the plug hole and measure when air leaks start to happen or something along those lines.

Whitneyd, to be honest, I wasn't looking at the cams when I tried, but it sounded exactly like it does when a belt has snapped - it whirred but there was no other mechanical noise.

Anyone got a compression tester I can borrow ?

 

I am sure you mean Lock Tite, not loctite that's superglue

 

Not sure mate, but if you do time it all back up, you have got nothing to loose by doing it the normal way. I bought a compression tester for just over a tenner from local car shop.

 

A tenner ! Fook that's good, cheapest I have seen was £100 ! Is your local car shop part of a retail chain or an independent ? If retail, there may be one around here too.

What make is the tester ?

 

If all the intake valve were closed it wouldn't be able to pull air in to make compression so the engine wouldn't start and it would probably turn over pretty easy. Can you tell if all your intake valves are fully closed? Also when it shut down did you hear any bangining noises?

 

I have a new tester you can borrow if you want.

You know where I am if you need it. (but we're shut this saturday)