[V8] Timing belt and other horror stories

[Mark Hanman]

PT timing belt.
I presume this is related to a timing belt failure in it's history.  Not documented, but supposition based on what was seen during the stripdown.
My silver car, which is tatty looking, but fairly low mileage (less than 100K now), suffered coolant temp problems one day- over pressure in the system, blowing out the coolant, but nothing like water in the oil at first.  Unexpected, as it had been faultless all summer.  Any way, I had to go abroad for a job, so it was laid up for 3 months, until I came home.  I pulled the heads off, as it was fairly clear that a head gasket had failed somehow.  Or so I thought.
When I pulled the heads, I discovered that heads had been cleaned up with what must have been a dish scouring pad.  Rough is a very mild description.  Cylinders one and two had new valves in.  Noticeable by being a very different colour from the other 6 pots- my guess is that the previous owner plus one had bought the car (it had been in storage for a while, hence the low miles).  They had abused the car.  the belt had probably snapped, bent valves, etc.
What got me was the areas of the rebuild that were done at minimal cost.
New valves, but no head machining/skimming.New head gaskets.  The head gaskets that came off were near pristine, and certainly not very old.Head bolts were at remarkably different torque- old headbolts?  They didn't appear new.  Some cracked at what would be expected torque, others were able to be undone with a simple ratchet and no effort.
The block surface had been damaged. The damage caused to the head surface had exacerbated the problem of not sealing properly on the head gasket, allowed a gas leak past the metal ring/fire ring.  This was adjacent to a head bolt.  Gas had then exploited a casting weakness, causing a small crack into the coolant gallery, and got into the coolant, and more into the crankcase. Eventually, coolant started to get drawn back through the bolt hole.All this I thought could be recovered with careful machining work, but when the engine was stripped down to a bare block, I found the centre main bearing had spun 90degrees, masking the oil feed, and there was a crack down through the bearing support.
Reminds me of the proverb/poem
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.