Wow, I had a pit in my stomach when I saw the pic.

couple of things:

Same exact thing happened to me. Cam bolts worked loose, snapped the chain, end game.

They have ARP cam bolt which I now use, but it is extrememly important to use loctite on these bolts. Whenever I have a cam swap, I make sure that new bolts are used (stock or arp) and copious amounts of loctite are used.

When mine broke I heard a funny noise and headed home. The car shut off and threw the same code and wouldn't start. Valves just kissed the pistons. The shortblock was good, but I used the time to upgrade to to a stroker since it had to come out then anyway.

Dougie

 

Now that you have seen what is wrong does anything come to mind that you forgot to do? Not saying that it is your fault but I know sometimes when things go wrong and I can't figure out what happened I will see something and go......Oh yeah

Sorry for your loss Hopefully you can get it back on the street soon!

 

Yeah I'm afraid I agree. Mine sheared clean off with the alignment dowel.. those look like the gear walked off the dowel then twisted the bolts.

 

Sorry for your troubles. I tend to agree that it looks like the bolts worked loose. But just be sure you are not getting valve spring coil bind. That can cause a chain to snap.

Also, I've never used RTV or any kind of gasket sealant on the cam cover. Those aluminum gaskets with the embossed o-rings do not need a sealant.

 

Thank you everyone for your replies!

Where I am presently located, has very limited Internet access. My last post was achieved by randomally wandering around with a laptop in the blazing sun! I eventually found a spot in a ditch that had wireless access and proceeded to type up my previous post! Try to imagine the looks I received from people who drove by!

I did indeed torque down the cam bolts (26lbs) and used loctite.

Additional damage...three of the Patriot Extreme springs broke. The inner spring broke on two of them, the outer spring on the other.

Two lifters were also broken.

IWIS chain broke.

A number of valves were bent, but the pistons look great! The worst one of them has but a slight "relief". ;-)

Louis, Mike, Jonathan, and the gang at LG Motorsports have been unbelievable throughout all of this and I could not have asked for more (or better) help! Before I had even pulled the engine apart, Louis and gang sent a "care" package containing everything they could think of that I "might" (remember the engine hadn't been disassembled yet!) need! Louis told me to use whatever parts were needed and just send the stuff I didn't use back to him. You can buy Corvette parts from just about anywhere, but you only find service such as that from exceptional people.

I have taken a number of pictures of the additional damage and the rebuild process. I am planning on putting them online when I get finished with the rebuild, and able to return to a location that has broadband Internet access!

:-)

 

Bittersweet, man.

The carnage hurts, but at least you've got some real friends down at LG. What a crew. Seems like you're a competent wrench yourself, so with that type of help to go with, that car should be back together and running again soon. Are you thinking about any particular upgrades, or different parts this time around?

Keep us updated.

 

LG Motorsports has always been a friend to the forum, but in this case, they are treating you like family - way to go guys a cold one from me at Carlisle for sure!

I wish I lived closer, Id come and give you a hand - us IT guys have to stick together If there is anything I can do to help, please drop me a line. Maybe we could get a collection for a plane ticket for the SpinMonster to come up and give you a hand.

Good Luck!

 

Any hints as to what cause the carnage? Those cam bolts coming out are troubling...

 

Man, that is not easy to look at.....

Could it have been just a timing chain failure? If the chain breaks and wedges itself such that the cam sprocket locks while the crank is still moving, the extra valvestrain damage would occur.

 

The cam bolts are 18 ft/lbs.

LG are good people.