For all you mechanical types - what is wrong in this picture?
- Thread starter Lopéz
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Caporegime
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Looks like one of the hold down caps for the cam has snapped off the far right end, but i fail to see the join marks nor bolt holes.
Associate
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cam shaft in the wrong way around so that the valves are going in the wrong order ? 
I would be going along with this, looks like its broken off from the upper side looking at it from this photo.
Soldato
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What on earth would cause it to fail like that!? Its not exactly a highly stressed part
Soldato
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Yeah, almost like the bits that it bolt onto have sheered off pretty much perfectly inline.
There does look to be a bit of swarf at the top to suggest this.
Soldato
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Hello camshaft bearing.
Also it's taken your rocker cover with it.
Also it's taken your rocker cover with it.
Well, in answer to a few points:
Yes, cam cap number 4 is missing - and the mounts in the head have sheared off.
Did it make a noise? No. I discovered this by accident about 15 minutes ago when I was taking the rocker cover off to paint it! It does explain that single noisy tappet I suppose. The engine still runs flawlessly other than that.
There is no debris in the head, this has obviously been missing for quite some time!
Quite a clean break:
And finally, no this isn't the Manta engine, it's Kate's Golf!
Yes, cam cap number 4 is missing - and the mounts in the head have sheared off.
Did it make a noise? No. I discovered this by accident about 15 minutes ago when I was taking the rocker cover off to paint it! It does explain that single noisy tappet I suppose. The engine still runs flawlessly other than that.
There is no debris in the head, this has obviously been missing for quite some time!
Quite a clean break:
And finally, no this isn't the Manta engine, it's Kate's Golf!
Soldato
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Where did it go?
No idea. I'm guessing it sheared off years ago and whoever owned the car at the time simply threw it away and decided to see if the car still worked. It did
Im no mechanic but would that not put undue strain on the shaft? possibly causing metal fatigue and eventually a nice lound bang! 
Then again the shaft is so strong that the engine will prob die elsewhere before that happened anyway.
Then again the shaft is so strong that the engine will prob die elsewhere before that happened anyway.