Broken Manley Intake Valve

MexGT

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This happened to me around 10 days ago, but didnt had the mood to post it around. So after 2 days and maybe 30 miles of driving around with the new engine, the car started to sound with a different exhaust note and after few mins the car died and never started again.
I got my car towed to the shop and started to inspect everything, at first, we thought It was a VCT problem, ( as I posted first here) that the drivers side phaser took a dump, damaging the camshaft and that caused the engine not to start again, well thats what we thought it was first.... So I ordered a set of lockouts and when Installing the lockouts again, the engine builder noticed a roller r. arm was a bit disaligned, he grabbed it and for his surprise (and mine) it was completely loose and we thought WTF ... we found that a Intake valve broke a little bit after the valve head and we knew this was more serious than what we expected :tdown:
Next day they took my engine out of my car and took out both heads, the results were terrible ... the valve´s head that fell into the combustion chamber (Cylinder #5)and smashed all over the place, ruined a brand new JE piston, aluminum block, drivers side head, phaser and camshaft.
The cut of the valve was below where the valve seat ends, it was clearly that the valve broke first and it was not a valve-to-piston problem, since no other piston was even scratched by the valves, and if that was the case, valves should bend and not break, the rest of the valve that was still inside of the head and still there thanks to the valve lock, stood 100% straight, not even a single sign that the valve was hitted.
My valvetrain was:
Manley valves
Manley Titanium retainers
Manley Springs

Spring height was set as Manleys instructions, valve guides were new too.

So this is the result ....

Here, you need to pay very close atention, since the camshaft when torqued up, it doesnt have any space with the phasers inside part, thus the damaged camshaft, caused by the exhaust valve was bent because the intake valves head was pushed by the piston where the exhaust valve was, making it to get stuck in the head and leaned to phaser malfunction too.,,

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New Ported BBR heads
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New aluminum Block and pistons

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And the broken Manley Intake Valve

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Compared to stock intake and stock exhaust valves, notice where did the valve broke

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The pics speak for themselves, this totally sucks ....

I already spoke with a guy from Manley today about this issue, he asked me to send the broken valve along with the other valves of the head for inspection, the package was sent today and I hope they are recieving it by monday or tuesday next week.
I hope I can work this out with them, it was a completely NEW longblock, everything new on it, 30 - 40 miles of use, never revved past 3K, and ya´ll know how expensive this things are to build, even more when I need to pay to get every single piece down here to Mexico, pay customs, taxes, etc ...

This completely sucks
:tdown:
 

DirtyDogOfTheDesert

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Sorry to hear about you bad luck.

What springs were you running?

Was this the cause or the effect of the cam phaser failure due to not having the phasers locked out to begin with?

Good luck getting anything out of Manley.They're going to say the failure is due to piston to valve contact, and not just simply the valve falling apart.
 

SD07GT

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make sure you send Manley the pics !!

I hope you get things worked out (good luck) !!
 

GIG4FUN

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my condolences. It must be hard to live right now... hang in there.:beat:
 

MexGT

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Sorry to hear about you bad luck.

What springs were you running?

Was this the cause or the effect of the cam phaser failure due to not having the phasers locked out to begin with?

Good luck getting anything out of Manley.They're going to say the failure is due to piston to valve contact, and not just simply the valve falling apart.

I used MANLEY springs too and why would I have my VCT locked out if the Cam manufacturer, in this case Comp, claim I dont need any VCT modification on this particular cam #127300.

And it was NOT valve-to-piston problem, no other piston in the same head was hitted, BESIDES, were the valve can hit due to this problem, it wasnt hitted in this damaged piston (by the valve reliefs)
 

KIM_05_GT

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That SUX! Is BBR going to do anything since it was there head? They did the assembly correct? I'm not implying anything...just wondering.
 

MexGT

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I bought the valves separately, and yes it was installed correctly with the proper spring height.
 

CataclysmGT

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Holy shit.......I am depressed just looking at that. I feel for ya man. Best of luck in the future.
 

racevert

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Oh my god that sucks. What a nightmare. I would expect Manley will say that the valve was damged by piston to valve contact. They will attribute the P-V contact to 1) improper cam installation i.e; too advanced 2) VCT advance 3) improper camshaft specs (for advance + lift) for VCT not to be locked out 4) all of the above.
Can they resleeve the cylinder on that block and save it?
 

05stroker

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Yea i had to sleeve one and its like $100.00 easy save there but damn Mex I really hate this for you and believe me I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL.
 

MexGT

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Yeah guys this blows, I couldnt even enjoy the engine at all. I dont wish this to happen not even to my worst enemy.

Though, I didnt had the 3.4 unit still, thank god... because the debris of the head and piston were sucked by the intake and they were spread all over the plastic intake, some pistons even have small dents because of this. Having those things through brand new whipple rotors would suck even more, knowing i´ll need to send the SC unit for a general cleanup.

For now ... I need to buy 1 piston from JE and a set of rings for that piston and to send the rod of the damaged cilinder to check its balance. If its good, i´ll get the stroker into my original stock block and I´ll be using the stock heads with no cams.... for now.

I know that Manley will make up all the possible excuses, but when the guy over there that checks this type of problems with Manley stuff, see how clean the valve cut was, that it wasnt even bent, completely straight valve !



I´ll call BBR and see if that head can be saved.
 

lostsoul

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shit, I hate to see this happen to anyone. Many of us have been there.. some more then once :whistling: I too hope they will own up, but just in case it would not be bad to have an independent engine builder take a look and verify things as back up. I'm already 0-2 in getting someone to cover their F' ups. Get everything well documented and another party to agree then sit back and wait for the reply. Until, then try to focus on other things then your car or you will go crazy. ..
 

jsawyer

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Sorry to hear about this Mex. The pictures are down right depressing:tdown:
Good luck with the fix.
 

MexGT

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it didnt broke, it didnt even move of its place at all. Its also a Manley spring with Manley Ti retainers.
 

US-1

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Wow. I'm shocked. Just popped the head off the valve. I'd be interested to see what Manley finds out during the metallurgical inspection.
 

thump_rrr

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That's a crappy way to start off the new year isn't it.

I hope you have better luck with round 2.
 

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