Mystery Rocker

[Skibbe]

As a little background, I lost a cylinder. Pulled spark plug #3 and it was oily. Compression test on that cylinder came back with a big fat '0'. I tore into it tonight hoping it just needed a new head gasket. Pulled the valve cover off and see this:



WTF???

So it spit a rocker... OK. But Seseme Street taught me about playing the "One of these things just doesn't belong here" game... and that rocker sure doesn't match the other 7 standard sliders.




That valve is stuck open, which is the major problem... and that explains the chugging and probably the oil in #3. It doesn't look like the spring broke, but I don't have the tool to pull the valves so it looks like the head's going to have to come off before I figure out exactly what happend.

For a car that was taken care of so well, with all genuine Mopar replacement parts, I was very surprised to see this strangeness. Any thoughts as to what the previous owner's thinking would have been?

[turbovanman²]

It probably got chewed up when it got spit out. My monitor is really bad so the picture isn't 100% clear.

[MiniMopar]

That's one of those sintered iron jobbers (the MP followers). My guess is that it tore-up the original and/or spit it out. Whoever did the fix tossed in one they had kicking around.

Maybe the car was overheated and a valve guide dropped? BTW I was standing next to JT when you called...LOL. You could try prying down on the valve stem with something to see if it moves (protect the cam lobe with something). Maybe its behavior well tell you something. If you're pulling the head anyway....

[MiniMopar]

From what I see in the pic, the cam and the follower look fine. I'm guess the valve issue is what's causing whatever the original problem was.

[turbovanman²]

Based on what he said, I bet the valve is sticky or seized, hence the spit rocker,

[Skibbe]

That's one of those sintered iron jobbers (the MP followers). My guess is that it tore-up the original and/or spit it out. Whoever did the fix tossed in one they had kicking around.

Maybe the car was overheated and a valve guide dropped? BTW I was standing next to JT when you called...LOL. You could try prying down on the valve stem with something to see if it moves (protect the cam lobe with something). Maybe its behavior well tell you something. If you're pulling the head anyway....

So that answers the question of what the rocker is from, I hadn't seen one before.

Should have told you two to run over and have a look, I'm only a few blocks away!

I was going to leave it stock TI since it was running so smoothly... The gods frowned on that though, so I might as well TII it while the head is off. Other option is to bite the bullet and dissasemble the rusty black one and put the 2.5L TII SMEC drivetrain in this shell. So many choices... so many problems.

[BadAssPerformance]

Yeah, what Russ said...

btw, thought this one was going to stay T1?

[Tony Hanna]

I may be giving some bad information here, so anybody correct me if I'm wrong. The first thing I would do is gently peck straight down on the valve stem and see if you can get it unstuck. I'm guessing it got pushed past it's normal range of motion when the follower spit and it's hung on a burr or piece of carbon on the valve stem. If the valve comes free when you peck on it, I'd put a follower on that matches the others and try it out. If it doesn't work and the valve sticks again, you're not out anything but a follower, and if it works you just saved yourself some time and a head gasket.

[BadAssPerformance]

Interesting idea and worth a try Tony.

By 'gently peck' do you mean 'gently smack with a hammer'?

[Tony Hanna]

Interesting idea and worth a try Tony.

By 'gently peck' do you mean 'gently smack with a hammer'?

LOL, if I had a lawyer he'd probably caution me about liability issues, but I don't so here goes...
I should probably suggest using a wood dowel or a brass drift and smacking that with a hammer, but to be honest, if it was mine I'd just give the valve stem a couple good taps with a hammer and a 1/2" drive extension as a drift and see if it frees up.

[WVRampage]

LOL, if I had a lawyer he'd probably caution me about liability issues, but I don't so here goes...
I should probably suggest using a wood dowel or a brass drift and smacking that with a hammer, but to be honest, if it was mine I'd just give the valve stem a couple good taps with a hammer and a 1/2" drive extension as a drift and see if it frees up.

Thats what I would do Mine did that a while back and mine bent the lifter and the valve.

[BadAssPerformance]

Gotcha... guess he could probably pry on it with a screwdriver pivoting under the canshaft too.

[Tony Hanna]

That might do. I've used that method for reinstalling followers before. If it's hung up pretty good though it might take the shock from hitting it to break it loose. If the valve is bent like WVRampage suggested, my idea won't do a bit of good but if it's just a burr or piece of carbon, it should do the trick.

[Skibbe]

Yeah, what Russ said...

btw, thought this one was going to stay T1?

The idea was to keep it reliable and leave it alone in its TI configuration. That didn't work out.

I'll hit it with a hammer tonight.

But, if it's leaking oil into that cylinder, something must be messed up with the guide seal. Just having a stuck valve shouldn't cause an oil leak...

[BadAssPerformance]

If it snaps free with a rat-a-tap-tap on the end, might be worth just changing valve seals with the head still on the car.

Or, since the rocker had been replaced anyways, there possibly is something f'ed about it which caused it to spit the stock rocker out. Was the RTV on the valvecover new? Maybe thats why it was for sale on ebay?

[mpgmike]

My experience with these heads is that the exhaust valve guide dropped (it was exhaust wasn't it?) because the valve siezed. If you take a small screwdriver I bet you can lift the valve stem seal on that cylinder with little to no effort. Fix is to remove the head and have that guide (and probably that valve) replaced.

Mike

[Skibbe]

Mike- That's the intake side.

Ok, I gave it a smack and it popped right back up.

But, not having a valve spring compressor, and having no experience with valve work, I think I'll just pull the head and see what's up.

[MiniMopar]

Yeah, I would say that something's still up. It's obviously happened to it before.

[BadAssPerformance]

I have a spring compressor or two but dont have the adapter for the air compressor... probably good idea just to yank it tho... unless you want to drive it to the CMC show first

[Tony Hanna]

I'd just find another follower and try it out. Worst case you might have to drive it home on 3 cylinders and pull the head off anyway. Best case, it would run fine.