Basically, anything with a belt is toast if it slips bad enough or breaks, and 99 percent of the time, motors with a chain will be ok because it will just jump one tooth or 2 and run crappy so it'll get fixed right away.

 

well, i know that all the little nissans and hondas and probably most modern engines will bend the valves on a timing belt slip or break, but i thought that older, american made V8's had enough clearance to survive anything. i've never actually tested it, but i've fixed a number of timing chain slips that didn't do any permanent damage.

i was just wondering if anyone knew for absolutely sure.

 

Yes, but do you consider a bent pushrod permanent damage or an acceptable casualty?

 

Honestly, I think he got shafted. The non interf. engine I saw a valve hit the piston was an old 2.3 Ford, which was beyond worn out, and expect it had other issues.

Why put all that work into the top end of a motor with that many miles?

 

I would think 250K on the original chain on a LA318 is an engine about done too. They didn't use moly rings on those old LA motors IIRC.

 

i guess that was a bad choice of words. i should have said "serious damage", as in, this $40 timing chain replacement is the easiest part of your messed up motor, and the rest of the repair is gonna cost you some money, bubba.

bent pushrod and valve is better than a hole in my piston, my piston, my piston (another song there).

 

temporary condition of being a dumb ***.

actually, it was one of those tar baby things. it crapped out and he took it to a shop, where they said, yep - looks like a timing chain. can't check compression cause its out of time. cost you about X amount of money. ok. (hit the tar baby with one hand).

X amount of money later... is my truck ready yet. nope, looks like there's something else wrong here, we're going do a compression check tomorrow. (hit tar baby with the other hand).

couple days later. well, this is not good, got 0 compression on 1 or 2 cylinders, looks like we need to pull the heads and get an idea of whats wrong. it'll be X more amount of money. duh-ok. (hit tar baby with both feet).

couple days later. well, we got the whole top end tore down into a million pieces, looks like we got a couple bent valves and pushrods, gonna need a valve job, gaskets, etc. gonna cost you XXX amount of money now.... or do you just want us to push it out back. duh-ok. (stick head into tar baby).

2 weeks later. ok we got the heads back on. compression good. timing good. running a little rough. going to need a carb kit, tune up, etc. ok f*** me running. (wrap both arms around tar baby).

$1800 for engine work. $1200 last year for transmission. congrats. $3000 in a pos truck worth $1000

 

gang banged is a better description. yeah, i was just wondering if they lied about the bent valve and pushrod. if its an interference engine, then its likely true. if its a non-interference, then we have a little unnecessary repair...