2G Cut timing belt without locking gears.

[Brandonjffrs96]

Mechanic didn’t lock the cam gears when he cut the belt cussing the tension to pull the cams. Bent valves? He called me after cutting the belt to tell me this but now he’s saying he pulled a pulley off which caused the belt to slip. It’s bs I’m suing the guy most likely. Whats the percentage of the valves being bent

 

[19Eclipse90]

Pretty low if all he did was cut the belt and didn't attempt to rotate the engine further. Really getting ahead of things, here. What work is the mechanic expected to do?

If the cams are removed, all valves will shut and the crankshaft can be rotated at will. Line up the crankshaft timing mark, reinstall the cams with the marks close to lined up and it'll be fine.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

If he just loosened all the cam caps then they should be ok. I am skeptical though. Look at the valves from the top and see if any are shorter than the rest.

 

[TerminalTalon]

Remember when we didn’t use a cap lock tools and just did timing belts with no issues? You should be fine if I’m reading that correctly. If he didn’t rotate the engine and if he did it would still need a bunch of torque to bend anything.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I will beg to differ on the amount of torque it takes to bend a 4g63 valve. I rolled one cam over after the cams were bolted down on my head and heard a slight "ting". That sound was the sound of an intake valve just barely touching an exhaust valve that was open and it bent. It wasn't very noticeable to the eye, but my machinist put it into his valve grinding machine and it wobbled (like 3 others did). I had to replace those 4 valves and I only used my hands to turn the timing gear over, no wrench at all. That was when I was new to the 4g platform but it doesn't take much, believe me. Those stems are just slightly bigger than a Predator 212 go cart engine and nothing like a Small Block Chevy, that is 8.66mm.
I think 4g valve stems are around 6.5mm and the Predator uses a 5.5mm stem.
I work on all of those motors so it is noticeable.
Marty

 

[Brandonjffrs96]

I ended up having bent valves and dings on my pistons and more. It took me awhile to gather everything up but I did end up winning in court. Dude had my car for slightly over an entire year and he basically admitted that he messed up and was too scared/not man enough to tell me the truth. Motor was shot. Drove the car to him but trailed it back home. Guy was a typical pos

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Man that SUCKS but it can all be fixed!!!
Believe me......been there but was my OWN fault.
I don't "LIKE" what happened but thanks for following up the thread with results for all to be able to ponder.
Marty

 

[Dericsh]

Sorry that happened, thanks for the update. I didn’t think they would be bent without the engine running but you proved me wrong! Unreal that you had to go to court to get it taken care of.

 

[pieceofcloth]

I ended up having bent valves and dings on my pistons and more. It took me awhile to gather everything up but I did end up winning in court. Dude had my car for slightly over an entire year and he basically admitted that he messed up and was too scared/not man enough to tell me the truth. Motor was shot. Drove the car to him but trailed it back home. Guy was a typical pos

Sorry that happened, thanks for the update. I didn’t think they would be bent without the engine running but you proved me wrong! Unreal that you had to go to court to get it taken care of.

What proof? The engine had to have been turned and even then its not that easy. I feel theres so much missing from this story/claim.

 

[Brandonjffrs96]

I’m not a mechanic and I wasn’t there so what exactly caused the valves to bend I have no clue. If I had to guess he probably drove the car to his buddies garage and the motor overheated. The water pump gasket did leak and I told him not to drive the car period but it ended up in another city somehow. At the end of the day it’s 100% his fault and he was aware of that. Just tried lying and waiting it out but I wasn’t gonna let him get away with destroying my built 6 bolt swap.

I’m not a mechanic and I wasn’t there so what exactly caused the valves to bend I have no clue. If I had to guess he probably drove the car to his buddies garage and the motor overheated. The water pump gasket leaked and I told him not to drive the car period but I know he doesn’t have a trailer and the car ended up in another city somehow. At the end of the day it’s 100% his fault and he was aware of that. Just tried lying and waiting it out but I wasn’t gonna let him get away with destroying my built 6 bolt swap.

At one point he said that he never even got the valve cover off but I seen the car sitting in a shops field for months and ended up snagging some pics. At that time the valve cover was upside down with the cams fully exposed. Exhaust was clogged, hatch was flooded, feces on the floor, and so much more. He called me to say that he cut the belt but face to face told me that the pulley fell which caused the belt to come off. If so why did I need a new timing belt? The one on it was a oem with maybe 5k miles. He also said that the block was a 94 which I know it’s a 89. He said that he believed the motor was a swap months after I texted him clearly stating that it is a built 6 bolt swap. Tried making me buy 7 bolt parts because he went off the year on the vin rather than the block. I caught him in many lies and it saved my ass. He was just some pos family friend who was clueless

All in all the dude just kept giving me the run around and lie after lie. 8 hour job tops yet he had my car for a year. If anyone’s interested in the full story I’ll be more than happy to post the entire situation since this is a touchy subject and I’m sure some might be interested in the exact timeless of this issue.