Nathan Plemons

So, if anybody saw my "It's Alive" thread, located here, http://forums.corvetteforum.com/othe...its-alive.html , I am sorry to report that it's not so alive anymore. My friend was driving it to the car wash yesterday to give it a quick spray down then he was going to take it home and do a few minor things, swap the alternator, install a new IAC, etc. Unfortunately he never made it there.

Apparently he was driving along minding his own business at around 40 MPH when he heard a really bad sound and the engine died on him. He coasted into a parking lot and a quick under-hood inspection showed nothing wrong except for a slight nick out of his timing belt. He pulled off the oil filler cap and could see one of his rocker arms just floating around and one intake came lobe scored to hell.

He got it towed home and pulled off a valve cover, every single valve is stuck open and we're not sure why. The only thing that seems like it could damage every valve on every cylinder would be piston interference. Thing is this should have happened right away, not 59.9 miles later. Something had to have changed! The timing belt did not jump time, the cams are still timed perfectly to the balancer, and what about that ding in the timing belt?

He was too disgusted to tear into it last night so I don't know for sure, but here is my working theory:

I THINK that the balancer must have sheared the key and slipped on the crank. This would allow the belt to remain perfectly in time as far as the balancer and cams but still allow the pistons to contact the valves. I'm thinking that either a piece of debris from the key or just the plain shock of the piston slapping the valves is what damaged the belt. In my mind this is about the only thing that could explain such catastrophic damage to every valve on every cylinder. What do you think?

At this point we're hoping that the damage was confined to the head and the valves and didn't destroy the pistons. He pulled 2 spark plugs and can see that those two pistons are at least not shattered, but can't get a good enough view to see how much damage the valves did.

My friend was thinking about tearing into it last night but he may have just gone to bed in disgust, OR he pulled the head off, found that his pistons were toast, and decided to torch the car. Either way I haven't heard from him yet this morning. I'll be sure to post pictures of the carnage as soon as they are available.

Nathan Plemons

Nathan Plemons

Engine lasted 59.6 miles. The balancer bolt backed out which allowed the balancer to slip on the crank. His ARP flywheel bolts also backed out and as the flywheel rattled around it apparently jammed the bolts and has ruined the threads, they won't go in OR out. So much for ARP bolts with ARP assembly lube and torqued to ARP specs.

Crank is probably ruined, pistons MIGHT could be saved, rods should be fine. Block is probably OK and we think the head can be fixed easily enough. Just more time and $$.

Painrace

I know you don't want to hear this but I would not use any internals unless they are completely checked out and then only on the street.

Just my 2 cents!

Jim

Nathan Plemons

If I know my friend he'll replace the whole rotating assembly rather than risk it. He had been considering just trying to dress up the pistons until we got down to the flywheel. At that point he pretty much called it a total loss and I don't blame him. Why spend $$ to replace one part only to put a questionable part back in.

68ragtop69

Ouch!!