Something shattered timing chain cover???

[Caitlmt]

I completed my trickflow track heat kit h/c/i today. The first time I fired it up it shattered the timing chain cover and I have no clue why. Tomorrow im gonna start pullin it all apart and find out why. It was a new set of gears and new chain. The bearing was in and the new shorter cam pin was in. Any ideas why this might of happened? Is it necessary to pull the heads to check for damage? Please help.......

 

[Dark Knight]

Pulling the heads will depend on what broke. If the timing chain came off, there's a good chance you bent some valves. Could be a bunch of reasons for the broken cover, if the chain was put in wrong, you could have hit a valve with a piston and snapped the chain, pin could have sheared through etc...

 

[Michael Yount]

Did you degree the cam during the install so you knew for sure what the valve timing was? Did you measure p to v clearance? I'm with Knight - my guess is that you had contact in the cylinder (p to v) that precipitated the other issues. Did the engine turn over by hand with no problems when you were installing rockers - stabbing the distributor?

 

[GTwannaB]

id bet money that its the camshaft retaining bolt, mine came out too and put a hole in my timing cover big enough to fit my thumb in. after it came out then my distrib. chewed up my cam and i then had bent pushrods and valves. big mess. big big mess

 

[5.0Droptop]

That just plain sucks.

 

[bgjohnson]

i've seen those bolts come out of the cam thrust plate. It walked and broke the cam in a few places, wrenched the crank in half and cracked the block.

 

[1991vert]

loctite? anyone?

rather be safe than sorry