Broken cam shaft?

[Porkscratching]

Hi all, I've recently put my 1.6 td JX into a garage for a head gasket replacement. Before refitting I had the head tested and skimmed. The engine was reassembled and on fireing up they encountered a problem. The cam snapped. The proprietor says this is pure bad luck (I'll blinking say).

My question is, is he right or are there more likely to be other reasons?

I know what ever the ways and where fors are I'll have to pick up the tab as I won't be able to prove to the contrary.

Your input and views would be welcomed. Regards, Max.

[ajsimmo]

Very, very unlikely to be a coincidence. They almost certainly did something wrong. For a start, VW state that diesel cylinder heads must not be refaced.

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[Porkscratching]

Thanks aj. So I'm wrong in thinking that the slightly thicker three notched gasket is used to compensate for the head being skimmed. I thought it was pretty much standard practice.
We live and learn.

[Cobra88]

in my experience the valves touched the pistons when cranking.

or a cam bearing got no lube

nothing else really

[937carrera]

Perhaps tightening sequence when installing camshaft, or it was dropped ??

Give them a chance to fix it for you (FOC), or if not consider getting an engineers report on the cause of failure.

I have recently seen a similar situation on another forum, car went in for work, it came out rattling.Not us mate. Subsequent stripdown showed an inlet manifold washer in the combustion chamber.

[Cobra88]

Good point about tightening or dropped 937

[Porkscratching]

Hi folks, I got my van back last Friday and I've just been to pay the bill. To say it was reasonable let me say I rounded it up and gave him an extra 60 quid.

I left with the parting words "give it a good run, any issues you know where we are".

What can I say, job's a good un' and all's well that . . .

Regards, Max

[937carrera]

Thanks for posting an update and final resolution.

So many times people prefer to moan about a garage, rather than giving them a chance to fix things. There are good ones out there