Somehow I had a bolt break off from the drivers side engine mount on the block, and it got sucked up into the cam and timing cover/valve cover. Got stuck, chewed the belt but nothing skipped or broke (whew). I am going to to Tbelt and water pump since I am in here, any worries about the cam gear?

And in the second pic that shows what bolt broke out, am I safe to run without it, or should I pull this all apart and attempt to extract the rest and put a new bolt in?

 

looks like it ate the **** out of the cam gear teeth.

 

holy sh*t!

cars are magical sometimes; (the amazing things that can happen to them over night)

 

Thats for sure, it was fine when I pulled into the garage at night, then go to start it up and go to work the next morning, and its just squealing like a stuck pig so I shut it off and found that.

 

So should I be afraid of reusing the cam gear? I was thinking of sanding it down and buffing it to see how smooth it comes out, but dont want to have it affect the Timing belt at all.

Probably a dumb question, but would a gear off a H23 cam fit on there the same, or are they different?

 

h23 gears wont worl there a slight diff. in size- i would just scuff the gear smooth and youl be good to go.

 

You could probably re-use them if you sand/file down the burs. I bet you could find a used set really cheap from someone who has installed adjustable gears.

How did you find this? "weird" noises from the engine?

Good luck.

 

Yeah I started it up and it started squealing, like a super bad slipping belt, so first I thought either the P.S. or Alt was seized up.

 

I'm sure you could get some stock cam gears for pretty cheap, might be worth it for peace of mind.