Nightmare saturday night!

[high52kojak]

Just experienced the moment I just knew would happen one day, 3rd to 4th gear change, I missed 4th the first time ( slight crunching ) so pressed the clutch again and tried for 4th again only to hear a strange sound and the engine to die. NO!!! My first thought was the crank but the engine turns over and the crank is spinning and producing oil pressure on the starter so now think that the timing chain slipped when trying to change gear, which has messed up the timing bad enough for the engine to not run?? Time to get a new credit card I think!

[Steve E]

Did you over-rev it?

Cam chain tensioner behind the oil filler spout apparently, which you can quickly check to se if its loose.

Is the petrol pump running? Sudden jerking of car could have tripped the cutout?

Not good to hear such news.

Steve

[high52kojak]

It didn't over rev, certainly no higher than 6k. Yeah fuel pump is running, seems to turn over quickly, and it was rolling down the aa truck ramp when in gear so sounds like there is reduced compression. How do I check the tension of the chain?

[QuiteQuietCerb]

IF IT IS THE CHAIN DONT TRY TO START THE ENGINE AGAIN!

[high52kojak]

Right, just taken the oil filler spout off to see if the chain was still there, it is but is very very loose, I am thinking its either snapped or come off/broken the crank pulley?

[QuiteQuietCerb]

if its not snapped you may have got away lightly, i suggest you tow the car to an indy for further investigation

[TimJM]

high52kojak said:

Right, just taken the oil filler spout off to see if the chain was still there, it is but is very very loose, I am thinking its either snapped or come off/broken the crank pulley?

Ay? All I have is a metal pipe with a 90deg bend, how can you see the chain?

[high52kojak]

Unbolt the '90 degree bend' (three cap head screws) you can then see into the timing chain space. On mine as it currently is you can move the chain as far as you can move your finger in the hole

[Steve E]

Do a search and you should find a thread about the tensioner problem and how it comes loose.
Might be in the "This Forum" "Show FAQs"

I have read a bit about it on here, and IIRC they suggested we check in the oil filler hole to make sure the tensioner adjuster is tight.

You may have lost the tightening bolt and or nut???
NEED MORE EXPERIENCE THAN I HAVE, but I seem to remember it can drop down into the sump?????

As suggested don't turn engine any more until an expert has had a look.

Let us know how you get on!!!

We'er all with you on this one!
Wishing you luck!

[high52kojak]

Well I have already turned the engine over a lot, so the damage is probably already done ( st ). What I think is the tensioner is totally loose so I presume thats where the problem started. I've taken one rocker cover off and slowly moved the crank, the cams are not turning so I am thinking the chain has broke. Looking down the inlet ports with the throttle open I can see the inlet valves, they look to be straight and intact. I am currently trying to take the chain cover off but it looks like I have to remove two engine mounts, the air con pump and the crank pulley (which wont budge).

[mikesr]

If you have aircon fitted then its an engine out job to get the cam cover off.

[high52kojak]

Really? It looked like you could just remove the air con pump to get at the two top bolts holding the cam cover on.

[mikesr]

I believe there isn't enough clearance to get the crank pulley off and past the chassis.

[high52kojak]

Well my car is at PPC at Melton, their looking at sending the engine to Jason at Straight Six for a full rebuild. Anybody know anything about him?

[ro_butler]

high52kojak said:

Well my car is at PPC at Melton, their looking at sending the engine to Jason at Straight Six for a full rebuild. Anybody know anything about him?

He has a very good reputation for working on the sp6 engine (sorry if this sounds obvious).
The V8 is arguably much less complicated so should be fine in his hands.

[high52kojak]

Just a little update on my engine, Jason Clegg has stripped it and it appears that one of the chain guides has dropped out, getting trapped in the sprockets, snapping the chain. He said that whoever put it together didn't use any thread lock on any of the bolts! Two bolts on both cam sprockets were only finger tight also! The head gaskets were replaced a few months before I bought the car so the guy that put it together did a st job. fking cowboy.

[warpspeed]

Jason Clegg has rebuilt my engine which is currently being fitted at RT Racing. Richard Thorpe seems to rate him very highly. Comments from other indie's have also been very positive.

[longbow]

high52kojak said:

it appears that one of the chain guides has dropped out, getting trapped in the sprockets, snapping the chain. He said that whoever put it together didn't use any thread lock on any of the bolts! Two bolts on both cam sprockets were only finger tight also! The head gaskets were replaced a few months before I bought the car

That is inexcusable. Having just done the tappets and cam timing myself, applying loctite to a few bolts is not exactly rocket science, but it has to be done as the consequences are severe, as you have painfully discovered. Same goes for incorrectly torqueing the bolts. It really wouldn't surprise me if many of the AJP8 failures were attributable to such shoddy quality control during build, either at the factory or from subsequent work. It really pays to go to a reputable indi who's customer base is built on reputation. Do you know who did the work BTW?

[high52kojak]

Yes I know where the work was done but not sure whether to name them?

[julian64]

You'll remember from my blog on doing my cam timing some way back I mentioned that my cam bolts were not loctited and one was hand tight. And that was only a few thousand after a supposed tappet service.

There are actually only a very few people I would trust to work on my car.