Small Block & Big Block Chevy Specific - Engine Blown?Need Advice

Little background first: I bought a motor from a friend that was supposedly built by a reputable engine builder. He was getting shipped out to Iraq and he had lost all the paperwork on the motor. It is a 85 305 Monte Carlo motor and was completely rebuilt with a "torque cam" not sure what that meant and I was trying to help him out before getting shipped off to Iraq.

Well I got the motor in and fired up and it was running pretty good. I kept hearing a noise from the timing cover but I couldn't pin point it all. Well I took for a ride and it had zero power but sounded solid. Thinking it was a timing issue I adjusted it and revved it up to about 3500rpm and snap. There goes the timing chain it completely snapped.

I replaced the timing chain with a double roller it was obvious the one they used was a chinese crap piece and snapped completely as well as cracked the press on crank gear.

Put it all back together and it won' start at all. Again thought it was the timing so I find top dead center and re drop the distributor. Still won't start just cranks.. So I pop off the valve cover and see that I have 3 bent pushrods.

Now I bought a compression tester but I can't get it to register a damn thing not even a fluctuation which tells me I may have a bad tester or just a really boogered motor.

Is it safe to assume the heads have to come off and checked for cracks and relplace the valves or could I throw new pushrods in and see what it does? Anything else it can be? I think I might cut my losses and yank the motor so I can drop in the 350 I really wanted.

Sorry for the rant but it sucks when you do one guy a favor and you pay the price.....

I would tear it apart, might be bent valves and other problems. Not even worth taking chances and headache of hoping everything is OK inside, so i would remove it and rebuild it to your desire.

Yeah that is what I figured but if I am going to do all that I may as well follow my original plan and drop a crate 350 in it... Dang it all to hell I wasted all of that time...Its not so much the money but damn the time I will never get back...

God I love this hobby...

The LG4 305 in Monte SS was a crappy motor to start with.I would be a nice 350 crate motor like you said .

When the timing chain broke the cam stopped and the engine kept rotating which bends the valves that are open.

To rebuild the 305 would be a waste of money.
Go with a nice 350 platform. Zones might be right about bent valves and such.
If you pull it apart, I wouldn't be surprised if you see a couple lobes missing.