Help me out

i went racing today, and one of my friends dads snapped a timing belt, hit some valves, and of course cracked it, now he is no mechanic, he just drives, so i figured id help him, (well, fix it) anyways, i was in the middle of installing new valves, and had to leave for a minute, to go get some head gaskets, and i came back to find that he decided to put his heads and everything back on without using new gaskets, (specifically told him not to) he also forgot to bolt down the rocker arms, so he starts it gets a huge leak, and of course throws a rocker arm and pushrod. now he has to go buy new valve covers and fix his hood, anyways, my question is if this has an eternal affect on the engine, by getting a huge leak, even though i might help him again, will that 20 secs of running with a bad headgasket hurt him?

probably not, suggest a second opinion, i wouldnt help this guy out again

You’ll get ample time to check it out when you disassemble the engine to do the repairs.

Go ahead and help him. As long as he doesn’t blame you for his stupidity, there’s no problem.

i think this sounds like a perfect example of how to make UN friends in the mechanic world!

a little help, a little broken, and then a little more broken, and more help, more parts etc etc etc.

i’d stay away.

I hope you did more than install a few valves. Every one of them should be reground along with the valve seats. Add to that checking cylinder head flatness, valve guide wear, valve stem height, valve spring tension, etc.

Other than that, I would run, not walk, away from this debacle. By this time next week the entire blame may be placed on you instead.

dont, worry i did all that, i just was trying to get the main point down here

except for the spring tension, i went ahead and installed new springs

Ok, just wonderin’. I would still stay away from something like this.

A guy I’ve known all my life used to build small block Fords to use in his dirt track race car.

He would insist on turning the crankshaft .010/.010, install a set of STD bearings (allegedly for less friction and faster revving), and then wonder why he never made more than 2 laps before blowing up.
He would get mad at me for telling him he was going about it all wrong.

His last effort involved a Chevy (it was Ford’s fault at this point) with an .020 crank and STD bearings. Four rods at once! Two through the pan, one through the side of the block, and one through the alumium intake, where it promptly sheared off the back float bowl of a Holley double pumper and dented the hood! Cool!

Why waste your time again?

Folks, I think you’re being a bit hard on his friend’s dad. Unless I missed something, nothing in the post suggested that the dad wasn’t accepting responsibility for his mistakes. He may be just a good guy who was trying to do some of the work to help out.

If, in fact, he’s taking advantage of the OP or is blaming the OP, then I agree that he should be walked away from, but I didn’t read that into the post.

Yeah, and think of all the good stories you’ll get if you continue to help. If you stay home, someone else will have all the fun! Tell us what happens as the saga continues.

will someone tell me what op means?

I think I’ll choose “our poster” as a translation of “OP”. Why not?!

original post or original poster

I agree. The part that would burn my bacon is that he was explicitly warned against it and did it anyway.

Less friction?!? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Kinda tough to sit back and watch all the time and money wasted I bet.