On Thu, 29 May 2008 18:58:21 GMT, You wrote:

This rarely, if ever happens, and should it
actually happen, the engine would not even come close to starting,
and likely you would have bent Valves, and Connecting Rods, in short
order. Now if the Valve Lash is what your referring to, then likely
the engine would run, but smoke, wouldn't be one of the symptoms.

Some Jap cars are famous for bending all the valves when you break the
timing belt that small diesels don't have. Volvos used to have micarta
timing gears, and you bought aftermarket steel if you were going to
race. Many cars will not have valve piston contact no matter what
happens to the timing. In some cases there are cutouts in the piston,
and some have the top of the piston angled in such a way that the
piston will push valves closed instead of bending them.With low
compression engines the piston may not even reach the valve area of
the head. Timing chair breakage is rare to the point of near
nonexistance. One mechanic told me he had never heard of a broken
timing chain in real life. Its like whales ****ing, everyone has heard
of it, but few have ever actually seen it. With belts they will
break, sometimes with drastic results. You replace them regularly and
hope for the best.

Casady