The accountant & his refusal to perform a belt service. “It’s a fraud”

A few errors here. There is no device in any modern valve train I am aware of that prevents a valve from hitting a piston. It is easily achieved by a combination of reducing valve lift or increasing the size of the valve pocket in the piston. Both compromise performance but easy to do. Lots of cars are designed that way partially out of fear during servicing some moron will install a belt incorrectly on an overhead cam engine and bend a bunch of valves. But it is also done because so any do not do routine maintenance but adhere to the idea if it is still running it must be OK.

Valves dont "Drop" when a belt breaks. Commonly said but doesn't happen. They go out of phase with the pistons, hit each other and bend valves. In the old motors (Ferrari ended it in 82 on V8s and 84 on V12s) with sodium filled valves that due to their construction already being structurally compromised could break the heads off. That was a mess. There are some other motors that can break valves off as well due to garbage parts . Dropping a valve is a failure of a valve, or a retainer allowing the head or the entire valve fall into the cylinder (we used to see those from time to time) not one that is caused by crashing into a piston from a valve drive failure A heart attack is a heart attack. Getting a bullet shot through the heart or a steering wheel rammed into it is very different .

 

Dropping a valve is an old term that used to apply to what would happen when you would over rev an engine, like when missing a shift. Typically in push rod engines (in my day). The over rev would cause the valves to float because the valve springs weren't strong enough to follow the cam profile as fast and the cam rotated when closing. Then the piston would come up and wack the "floating" valve forcing the valve stem out of the retainer and the valve keepers (or locks) would fly out allowing the valve to drop into the cylinder. The rest was history.

 

Yes, that too. I was thinking of some of the early light weight retainers breaking.

 

Interesting comments by Ian Tyrrell at 12.35

 

You can probably "safely" push it to 10 year intervals but NO belt changes is just plain stupid.

 

What do you mean by “safely”

 

As in it probably won't blow up, but you're really gambling since the repercussions are far worse than just replacing the damn thing.

I think most guys here do them every 5-7 years...I'm sure there's a handful that have waited closer to 10.

5 is my limit.

 

like this? Old school history here

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Or,

What the account from the original post COULD have done was…….done the engine out service/s himself. He could have still saved the money, would have learned loads, and even helped out other DIYers. No engine grenade, no new/used engine, intervals at what ever he saw fit, and peace of mind that he could fix it himself. Plus, he could have used new after market designs like Hill’s bearings, Ferraripilot’s water pump (NLA), SFS silicone radiator hoses, etcetera.

That’s the option I went for.

 

Yes you are correct it does drive the oil pump, and it resides inside the engine. And in order to change it you must remove the transmission. The reason they did this, according to the chief engineer for the platform was to make the engine shorter. WTF?

 

Quite a price to pay but GM engineering has a long history of stupid ideas that made it to production.

 

Surprised that was not just welded up as so many others were.

 

Car received a “new” OEM block in the day so it was likely just cast aside as a door stop.

 

Stay tuned.... Pictures soon!

 

It's funny because it is true.....

 

The Aztec was genious!

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100 years ago they could build an inline six that drove the oil pump without a belt.

Today, it's belt driven "to make the engine shorter" when clearly could be a chain or gear to gear within the same dimensional restraints.

No, it didn't make the engine shorter, it's a result of pure stupidity.

 

Maybe they just forgot to mention life. As in "It makes the engine life shorter".

 

Lmao, nailed it ^

 

Well it did cost less.

 

What happens when decisions are driven by bean counters.

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They go out of phase… I’ll have to ponder that one.


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Go ahead blame it on the accountants. We’ll see what happens to to your bill!


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