Nightmares after Headgaskets

[12Gauge]

Ok posted a little while agoe about pushrods and rockers, now my delema is far worse i think. I busted the rocker, and thats an understatement, if i can get my camera workin ill post a pick. I thought it was possible that i might have bent an intake valve(long short messup with the rods, thus broken rocker) so with the valve closed i pured oil in the head ontop of the valve thinkin that if it was bent then it should leak down into the cylinder, but after more than 2 hours the oil level stayed the same. So after i got a new pushrod and rocker, put it all back to gether(again) and now its running really rough, has no power and a real choppy slow excelleration. Is it possible that the valve is bent? or could i be looking at something else?

[12Gauge]

here is a pic of the rocker, sry my cam sucks at closeups

[gpse3400]

You might've killed the lifter. To make sure your cylinders are sealing, I'd run a compression test first.

[tractorman]

Your picture isn't coming up.

It seems pretty likely that you've bent a valve, but people have got away with this sort of thing before and the valve somehow survived. Here's what I'd do. First, do a compression test. If that cylinder is about the same as the rest, then you might use liquid again to check the valve seal. Oil is really too thick to get a good idea of what's going on- diesel fuel works best 'cause it's thin enough to leak if there's a problem, but it doesn't evaporate like gas.

It's possible that that oil you poured in there has just fouled up the plug. You might pull it out, maybe have a look at it and clean it.

If you put a long pushrod in the wrong place, what about the short one? Are you sure all your pushrods are in the right place now?

[tractorman]

That's also a good point about the lifter. Make sure that when that cylinder is on TDC compression that the valve is fully closed, but the lifter is still putting spring tension on the pushrod.

[12Gauge]

sry bout the pic problem, ive been tryin to get the darn thing up, got it there now though

[12Gauge]

ill give the deisel a try and im workin on gettin a compression gauge, yea i really went over all the pushrods again, double tripple and then checked again. i hope its a plug, hellova lot better than strippin it down again. Im doing the work in my driveway and the flies love the taste of me, 240lbs of flesh buffet lol so the quicker the better, and the plug fouling kinda makes sense, there is no lifter noise or any type of racket coming from around that cylinder, my hopes are high but my expectations are not. thanks guys.

[IsaacHayes]

I would say if you bent a pushrod and broke a rocker your lifter is trashed. Lifters collapse first over anything else from what I've seen.

I'd pull each lifter and check it, or at least the ones that have been damaged by a too long of push rod. Then pull the rest of the rods, and measure them, and put them in the right places. Of course that is if your intake valve isn't bent..

[RednBlack]

But, if you haven't solved the root problem of the failure in the first place. It's gonna happen again. Replacing a plug is temporary. (It was running good before the failure, right?)

Pull the valve covers, remove the valve spring. See how the valve reacts to a hand job. If it moves free, you have a screwed lifter.

The reason I say this, is if you don't test everything first, you stand a chance of more than just a rocker arm failure. Dropping a valve head is terminal.

[12Gauge]

Thanks Isaac and Red, when i pulled the intake off after the rocker collapsed i measured the pushrods as i tookem out, i had a short in the exhaust on the first cylinder and a long on the intake in the last cylinder on the rear bank the cause of it breaking(and i had torqued them down too much). Somthin i thought about, when i put the oil ontop of the intake valve that had the split rocker i rotated the engine with no pushrods, and there were no bubbles in the oil, thinkin no bubble no air coming up through the valve. Red how do i check the movement of the valve with the head still on? Do i rotate the engine till the piston is at tdc on that cylinder and then remove the spring or will it drop into the cylinder on me? What tools could i use to get the spring off ? i dont have a spring compressor or proper tool for it. Im almost positive that the lifter is shot, i just gotta know about the valve cause it will haunt me while im putting everything back together if i dont check it somehow.

[IsaacHayes]

They make something that you use to pressurize the cylinder to hold the valves up. If you don't have the right tools then don't attempt to take the spring off..

You could try just taking off the valve cover, and replacing the lifter, then seeing if that fixes it. Shouldnt be too hard. If not then further diagnosis and tearing into it would be needed. I think the lifters are like 4 bucks a peice so try that. At least pull it out and look at it, I'm sure it's fubar'ed.

[12Gauge]

called local dealer and they said $28 a lifter, and a parts store that has em for $19. Blaaa it makes me ill. i was thinkin about the compressed air, i made a tool for doin springs on sbc's but that was 10 years agoe and 4 moves since then. non existant by now, lol. How do i get at the lifter with the intake still on, or do u mean pull the intake out too? if i could change it without pullin the intake off that would save me a whole lot of grief, lol.

[IsaacHayes]

I would just take the push rod out, and use a magnetic picker upper tool to grab it and lift it out. It's metal after all. You could nab one from the junkyard that you got your pushrod/rocker from the same way. That'd be cheaper.

[12Gauge]

thats cool but wouldnt it fall off while i was pulling it up, probably get caught on the pushrod guides lifting it out of there, then again, lol putting another one in would be very interesting, lol. Ill give it a hook tomorrow anyway, if i can get one in and out without removing the intake that would be a blessing.

[farmerz24]

sorry to burst your bubble dude, but the lifter hold down plates are required to be removed before the lifter can come out.. the lower intake needs to come off.

even if there were no hold down plates im not sure there is enough space to pull and change the lifter.

i would check all lifters while you are at it, talk to ben here i think he could also get you a better price on the lifters.