my fuel pump decided to take a walk today

i was driving to work and decided to pumch it to see how my new adjustments would respond, i went up to almost 4500rpm and the engine died, i pulled over on the side of the freeway took a look and seen oil, then i looked at the fuel pump and it was almost off the engine, how did the bolts come undone, the bolts were tight
 
how old were the bolts? Very possible they had been over torqued in the past which would lead the bolt to enter the necking region and making it impossible to torque properly.

I had this happen last year with wheel bolts on my Volvo (they use bolts, not studs). Had the originals on there for 13 years. 225k miles, tire rotations every 5k when I changed the oil. A few times, shops did it and would over torque them. Manual called for 81 ft-lbs, A few times I had to use a 3' breaker to free them up. Then, last fall, my wife was driving into town and called to tell me the wheel fell off. I thought she was smoking something and told her to have AAA tow the car back to the house. Sure enough, 4 of the 5 bolts snapped. Looking at the remains of one of them, it appeared that one had failed and after that, the others followed rapidly. I then replaced every bolt on the car with new. I was glad to be able to put my root cause failure analysis class to work. It is amazing what you can tell from looking at cracks, and how they form, and how it tells you what happened.
 
Remove the pump & check for damage of the camshaft eccentric & the pump arm.

Install a new gasket & put a lockwasher on the bolts & or put a dab of medium loctite on the fasteners. Bill
 
when i saw the pump sticking out, i thought i might of hurt the cam but the car is running great so i think it is ok but i will still check, i fixed it on the freeway, thats why i always bring tools wherever i go lol
 
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