Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

My cars dead, garage have the cam cover off and tell me the cam chain is snapped! What damage can I expect, I will be repairing it myself. Anybody else had the same happen? any advice would be gratefully received.

Tough luck. I'd pull the head off & have a look. If it was at idle then probanly not too bad. If at speed could have scrapped the engine. What state are the cam sprokets in? If thin you will need new cams as well. Mine had a valve stick. Sounded awful but was only £125 for a head rebuild. Not till you take it off will you know. Hope it's not so bad.

Oh dear.

Best to whip the head off to inspect the valvetrain and pistions etc.. It is a possibility that valves came into contact with pistions, which isn't nice.

If of course this has not happened, then buy a lottery ticket straight away!

Parts required would be new chain, tensioner and after inspection the cams may need to be replaced, which are rather expensive. The chain drive sprockets wear and almost flatten in some cases and as such requires both cams to be replaced.

Of course you could simply buy a motor from a breakers if the worst has happened

Certainly bent valves; possibly damaged pistons and youve a very high chance that the web on which the tensioner is mounted has been pulled away. If youre very very lucky youll only be looking at valves, a head is more likely and an engine is a possibility.

Simon

Thanks fellas,
Had a look round for a head and engine. Been quoted £440 for a head or £650-£950 for an engine.Still waiting for further quotes to land. Will pull the head off Thursday. Any body know of any heads or engines about?

One of my group got an S2 head after his cracked from EMC up in Brum, it'd been completely refurbed & I think it was around the £750 mark, but they'll have others.

I may have just what you need,ive sent you a pm !!

Head off, only took 3 hours taking it easy.........The damage is loads of teeth off the exhaust cam , two teeth off the inlet cam, broken web on the head by the tentioner, two really bent valves, slight mark where the valves kissed piston 4, snapped cam belt and chain. So all in all not to bed for chain failure at 80 mph! I can post photos in a day or two if any body wants to see the damage.

Not as bad as it could have been, I've heard of 16V engines being totalled when the chain breaks.

On a race track obviously. Not so bad then. Good job you wern't overtaking at the time. Don't know were abouts you are but theres a very cheap & good machine shop in Oldham that do a proper job of the head recon inc gaskets for very little. Camshafts are big money new. Look at Porsche shop. Porsche apart may have a pair of good ones. Or maybe ebay.

Id look for a complete head. I rushed my earlier reply and didnt mention the camshafts, because theyd already have been damaged: but I forgot to explain this. The chain wears the tensioner pad, which then wears the chain and the chain spoils the cam; so when the chain fails the cams are usually ruined (frequently with missing teeth).