Warning....check your cam lobes..

[buzzard]

WARNING….Check your cam lobes!
My car is a B5 S4 well cared for.

A few weeks ago I posted that I had noticed a slight ticking under the bonnet.
Sounded like a dry tappet or worn camshaft. Me thinking –german technology –72k of unchipped motoring with warm up and cool down with oil changes every 5 or 10kor whenever it was in—I thought surely nothing too serious.
So I took it took a local guy who I know well. He knows his stuff and he agreed that it sounded cammy so I booked it in for the following week.
Following 3 days of local driving I went to the car on the drive to go to see some clients.
On starting..........
Major miss followed by a spit back…..unusual I thought ….so tried it again only to find that she would not turn over at all.
GULP.

So without hesitating I rang Doug at MRC and he said bring it down. So on the back of a trailer she went off down to Banbury.
Doug then sent me a few pics of the diagnosis.

[buzzard]

then it got worse

[buzzard]

and worse

[buzzard]

so now the engine is scrap


dougs on the hunt
to be continued............

[kies4]

ouch, good luck with the hunt!!

[Turbo Joe]

Is this a common fault though?

[yorkie]

Feel for you but surely worn cam lobes didn't cause all that damage?

Maybe cam seized, snapped timing belt?

[buzzard]

cam belt done 10k ago.

think it must of been running hot on the one pot.
then seized the lazy valve only to hit the piston then snap off and the rest of the valves ate it..

the bore has cracked possibly through heat or just self distruction.
this is the only one that doug has seen that has done so much damage only on one bore.

[Mikey-S]

It might be ok, have you done a valve leakage test?

Seriously though, It must have been sickening to find all that damage.

[rolskii]

Ooouch ..... severly mashed up there buzzard ...... sorry to see it .....

Could have been a case of backfire stripped/snapped the t/belt and possibly reverse crank rotation after the pop too ....
I fixed many shitty fords and rover with valves stuck in the p/crown .... but never seen valves moulded into the head like that .. nor a cracked bore ......

be good to look at yr oil pick up strainer ... see if its picked up anything to block or reduce oil flow/cause the lobes to wear prematurely also ....
(I got crank/rods pistons if needed..? couple heads too..)

[DavidT]

Sorry to see that matey, what a mess, strange.

Rolski's post reminds me why I love this forum so much

[TopBear]

Fuckin hell!!

Feel for ya mate

[Doug_S2]

Cambelt was still timed ok - the locking tool fitted on.

The worn cam has eaten through the follower and then worn its way down the valve stem until the collets have come off - then the valve would have dropped causing the above damage and scarily craking the bore with it.

[Peakz]

Hey buzzard look on the bright side, it's an ideal opportunity for a 3.0 Litre conversion and NA heads

[S4TAN]

Bummer ... muchos condolonces dude! Hope it's not too pricey to get sorted.