If that bolt fails it's almost guaranteed to cause damage. Given these are interference engines pistons could land on the valves or worse. The likelihood of this happening is still about 1 in 50,000 however these engines like to rev hang and if one was to stomp on the gas when the engine is doing it's dumb rev hang it could potentially cause moderate to severe damage overtime or immediately.
Where did you get this information? A failure of the variable valve timing sysyem should not cause any engine damage, but it will set a CEL. You also mention a 1 in 50k chance it will damage the engine. How do you know this?
You said "if that bolt fails it will cause guaranteed engine damage"? Just wondering where you got that info on the 1.3T? I also never said VVT has anything to do with the chassis?
Was referring to the page 1 post about the camshaft bolt. This may be where we have our issue with interpretation. I'm not trying to spread misinformation as you are a mechanic so you know the wonderful life of chevy valves by now and have likely had experience with the interference engine drawbacks.
Yes, some of these engines get severely damaged when timing chains or belts let go usually resulting in several bent valves and cracked pistons crowns. This is the first 3 cylinder engine I've owned, but not the first 3 cylinder vehicle I've driven, think Geo Metro with a whopping 55 hp, lol.
