Well, I hope Thanksgiving was good fo all of you because let's just say mine consisted of oil and metal....
I let my very close friend borrow the Cobra in the morning to make a quick trip to his house and back before everyone gathered for the Thanksgiving feast. Caught a ride with my sister to my aunt's house and told him to met us there and about 5 minutes out he calls me and asks if its normal for my car to smoke occassionally and smell like oil....NO ITS NOT . Well he tries to baby it the rest of the way and as he pulls up in front of her house i see faint smoke from under the hood of the car and coming out of the driver's side fender , so he immediately shuts the car off and pops the hood.
As I open the hood, the first thing i notice is the pool of oil under the car and the trail of it on the road of where he made the turn. Then as i panic i notice something worse....The driver's side valve cover is cracked COMPLETELY in half right above the driver's side cam gear. My heart sinks and i dont know whats wrong, but later we notice that the bolt that holds the cam gear in place is missing and notice scarring on the valve cover peice that broke off and on some parts of the timing over. There are little peices that look like copper shavings down by the chain and in a few other spots but i dont know if thats parts of the bolt. My guess is after it broke off the chain caught it, and shot it up against the valve cover breaking it clean in half.
Does anyone know what would cause the bolt to shear off in half like that? I see no real other damage and plan to pull the timing cover and remaining valve cover off tomorrow.
Could i be lucky enough to where it bolt hit and then fell to the bottom and is simply laying in the oil pan? As of right now the bolt has to be replaced and so does the valve cover, but the extent of the damage is unknown for that.
I plan on contacting Ford and Svt to let them know of the situation since this car has never been taken apart and a damn bolt should not break in half especially in a hand-assembled motor in hopes that they can do something about it.
Here are some pre-leminary pictures:
I let my very close friend borrow the Cobra in the morning to make a quick trip to his house and back before everyone gathered for the Thanksgiving feast. Caught a ride with my sister to my aunt's house and told him to met us there and about 5 minutes out he calls me and asks if its normal for my car to smoke occassionally and smell like oil....NO ITS NOT . Well he tries to baby it the rest of the way and as he pulls up in front of her house i see faint smoke from under the hood of the car and coming out of the driver's side fender , so he immediately shuts the car off and pops the hood.
As I open the hood, the first thing i notice is the pool of oil under the car and the trail of it on the road of where he made the turn. Then as i panic i notice something worse....The driver's side valve cover is cracked COMPLETELY in half right above the driver's side cam gear. My heart sinks and i dont know whats wrong, but later we notice that the bolt that holds the cam gear in place is missing and notice scarring on the valve cover peice that broke off and on some parts of the timing over. There are little peices that look like copper shavings down by the chain and in a few other spots but i dont know if thats parts of the bolt. My guess is after it broke off the chain caught it, and shot it up against the valve cover breaking it clean in half.
Does anyone know what would cause the bolt to shear off in half like that? I see no real other damage and plan to pull the timing cover and remaining valve cover off tomorrow.
Could i be lucky enough to where it bolt hit and then fell to the bottom and is simply laying in the oil pan? As of right now the bolt has to be replaced and so does the valve cover, but the extent of the damage is unknown for that.
I plan on contacting Ford and Svt to let them know of the situation since this car has never been taken apart and a damn bolt should not break in half especially in a hand-assembled motor in hopes that they can do something about it.
Here are some pre-leminary pictures: