Rocker Arm jumped off, need some help.

[IllCobra]

Last week after doing a complete IC and Rad flush (yes, i burped it) and installing a 170* t-stat, I hopped in the car and was about to give a quick test drive when all of sudden it started making a decently loud ticking noise. I quickly turned off the car and my brother and I started looking around the engine to see if it was somehow coming from outside of the engine. Nothing, so we turned it back on and it sounded the same for 10 secs and then the ticking sound got louder, so again, i quickly jumped back in the car and turned it off. We weren't sure if it was the piston, rod bearings, or something else. It was getting late so we left it like it was and i decided to do some research.
After some reading around the forms, i came to the conclusion that it might be a spark plug that came loose since i have an early model 03. Early 03's = 4 thread. I ordered some ngk tr6's and was pretty confident that it was just a spark plug that came loose. Well, it wasn't the spark plugs, none were loose. Looked into each cylinder and saw some shavings in the second from the front driver cylinder. FCK!!!! We removed the valve gasket and found this....

Rocker arm decided to make a break for it and abandon its post. We manged to re-stall the rocker arm, but now I'm left with some questions... First of all, I just ordered stock replacement valve cover gaskets, spark plug seals, and bolt grommets from CJ Pony parts; so i'm obviously not going to drive the car until they arrive and we get everything put back together, probably next weekend. But, what could have caused the rocker arm to jump off like that? Will it happen again? Would the rocker arm jumping off like this have caused any other damage/problems to the engine? What's the worst and best case scenario for the shavings in the cylinder? My brother is bringing over one of those inspection cameras so we can check inside cylinder for damage; we will also vacuum any remaining shavings. The car only has 60,000 miles so it's not like it has a lot of miles.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[racebronco2]

For a rocker to fall off at some point the valve must have hung up for a brief amount of time to allow excessive clearance between the cam and rocker. Is is either a bent valve, dropped valve seat of a possibly a broken valve spring.

 

[IllCobra]

For a rocker to fall off at some point the valve must have hung up for a brief amount of time to allow excessive clearance between the cam and rocker. Is is either a bent valve, dropped valve seat of a possibly a broken valve spring.

Thanks for the reply.
Was really hoping it was just a freak occurrence lol but that's just me being overly optimistic. How difficult and costly would you say putting new valves would be?

 

[04cobraken]

Same thing happened to me last year. Exhaust valve seat fell out of the head on the #5 cylinder(second from the front drivers side). You will need to pull the head and inspect. Most likely the valve made contact with the piston if you see shavings. Best case scenario you need to get the seat replaced and all others inspected to see if they are loose. Hopefully piston is ok. I removed the head with the engine in the car. Good luck.

 

[IllCobra]

Same thing happened to me last year. Exhaust valve seat fell out of the head on the #5 cylinder(second from the front drivers side). You will need to pull the head and inspect. Most likely the valve made contact with the piston if you see shavings. Best case scenario you need to get the seat replaced and all others inspected to see if they are loose. Hopefully piston is ok. I removed the head with the engine in the car. Good luck.

Now i'm hoping it's just valve seat. Are there any good posts that go through the process of removing the head? Don't wanna go in blind. Also, where did you purchase your valve seats from?

 

[hotcobra03]

Ouch..

I had this issue..was a valve..

I followed the factory manual as 1st timer..


it really wasnt all that hard to do..

however now 14 yrs later its more an issue finding a good head.

Fixing it will run you a grand or so when said and done ..

it can be done over fender..

its a complete assembly..bolt and go if kept stock

 

[IllCobra]

Ouch..

I had this issue..was a valve..

I followed the factory manual as 1st timer..


it really wasnt all that hard to do..

however now 14 yrs later its more an issue finding a good head.

Fixing it will run you a grand or so when said and done ..

it can be done over fender..

its a complete assembly..bolt and go if kept stock

If all it runs me is a grand and time, then I don't mind that at all. However, I've read this motors are hard to work on, which is what is making me nervous.
Any recommendations on where to buy a factory manual and parts? This sucks cause I just bought the car a little over a month ago and have put less than 500 miles on her and this crap happens smfh. Was hoping to buy a set of FR500s and a few other things this x-mas, but now the money is going into getting her running.
Will post update after i get the inspection camera in there and see if my head is okay....fingers crossed.
Keep the info coming, guys. If anyone has any recommendations on what to check, replace, or upgrade while i'm getting her fixed, i'm defiantly listening.

 

[cj428mach]

I replaced my drivers side head and passenger side head after the original head developed the tick at about 8500 miles.

You should have about &750ish in gaskets, head bolts/studs, fluids, and other small parts that come up during a motor removal.

To get your heads fixed I'd expect to have another $500-750 to have both of them looked over and completely gone through. I'd suggest adding a head cooling mod now if you don't have one.

The electronic shop manual is available online for free but I bought the complete shop manual with wiring diagrams off ebay for about $100. I wanted a paper manual to look at in my shop rather than screwing around on my computer or with some printed out pages. It was a great investment.

 

[IllCobra]

I replaced my drivers side head and passenger side head after the original head developed the tick at about 8500 miles.

You should have about &750ish in gaskets, head bolts/studs, fluids, and other small parts that come up during a motor removal.

To get your heads fixed I'd expect to have another $500-750 to have both of them looked over and completely gone through. I'd suggest adding a head cooling mod now if you don't have one.

The electronic shop manual is available online for free but I bought the complete shop manual with wiring diagrams off ebay for about $100. I wanted a paper manual to look at in my shop rather than screwing around on my computer or with some printed out pages. It was a great investment.

That doesn't sound too bad i guess. The head cooling mod is on my to-do list. I will dig around for the repair manual.
Forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean "both of them looked over and completely gone through" ? You mean both the passenger and driver side heads looked over? Hopefully this doesn't take me long, a lot of nice Florida winter weather days going by and all i can do is just look at the car lol

 

[cj428mach]

That doesn't sound too bad i guess. The head cooling mod is on my to-do list. I will dig around for the repair manual.
Forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean "both of them looked over and completely gone through" ? You mean both the passenger and driver side heads looked over? Hopefully this doesn't take me long, a lot of nice Florida winter weather days going by and all i can do is just look at the car lol

http://www.modularheadshop.com/i-24...linder-head-package.html?ref=category:1268099

"03/04 Cobra Guys and Gals - Please be aware that the 03/04 Cobra, Mach 1 and Aviator Heads all have less than adequate Exhaust Valve Seat press fit. We are not sure why, nearly every set we have seen in the last 3 years has had at least one loose exhaust seat. We will not take any chances in sending a set of heads out that we are not 100% confident in. We haven't had any Valve Seats fall out and we aren't planning on it! With that being said, we will have to replace the Exhaust Seats with a better alloy and fitment. The cost of this is an additional $320.00 and includes the price of the Valve Seats."

The reason 03-04 Cobra cars develop the tick is the exhaust seats get loose. Even though its rare for the passenger side to develop the tick I recommend having the seats in both heads checked while you're there.

 

[IllCobra]

http://www.modularheadshop.com/i-24...linder-head-package.html?ref=category:1268099

"03/04 Cobra Guys and Gals - Please be aware that the 03/04 Cobra, Mach 1 and Aviator Heads all have less than adequate Exhaust Valve Seat press fit. We are not sure why, nearly every set we have seen in the last 3 years has had at least one loose exhaust seat. We will not take any chances in sending a set of heads out that we are not 100% confident in. We haven't had any Valve Seats fall out and we aren't planning on it! With that being said, we will have to replace the Exhaust Seats with a better alloy and fitment. The cost of this is an additional $320.00 and includes the price of the Valve Seats."

The reason 03-04 Cobra cars develop the tick is the exhaust seats get loose. Even though its rare for the passenger side to develop the tick I recommend having the seats in both heads checked while you're there.

CJ, you're freaking awesome!
I'm wondering if i should just save up some coin and take in my car to these guys and get everything freshened up and looked over... Had no idea about this shop, and they're only an hour and half from me. I'll give these guys a call after i consider my options on what needs to be done now and what can wait.
Thanks again, CJ!!

 

[hotcobra03]

http://www.terminator-cobra.com/svt_documents.htm

scroll down toward bottom for both small and large full pc version manual

 

[hotcobra03]

Small version works on cell..has basic in color wiring

full version has detailed wiring with conectors and location pics.

Both are more than worth your time to download and keep

 

[IllCobra]

http://www.terminator-cobra.com/svt_documents.htm

scroll down toward bottom for both small and large full pc version manual

Thank you!! Saved me some digging. You guys are giving me some great info.

 

[IllCobra]

Small version works on cell..has basic in color wiring

full version has detailed wiring with conectors and location pics.

Both are more than worth your time to download and keep

Already downloading. Defiantly worth having.

 

[NastyNate420]

I have the electronic manual and what I did was print up the pages and slipped them into the clear 3 ring binder pages and then into a binder. Makes it easier to read. If you have the room you might wanna drop the motor out. I havent done the heads in the car but I imagine its a PITA!

 

[IllCobra]

Yeah, i was thinking of printing them out. Gonna take a while and eat up a lot of ink and pages so i might do it when i have some free time at work lol

 

[keith89]

Had the same problem. Drove 5 min to the gas station. Filled up and as soon as i went to restart the car, i heard a plink sound and it started to run really rough. Pulled the valve cover on the passenger side and found 2 rockers lying there. Turned out the 2 exhaust valve seats in the number 1 cylinder dropped and held the valves open. I pulled the engine and had both heads machined and all the valve seats replaced. Also had inserts installed for the spark plugs. Apparently the valve seats in the number 2 cylinder were slightly loose too. I think this was all a result of a mild overheat a year prior when my fan cracked.

 

[IllCobra]

Had the same problem. Drove 5 min to the gas station. Filled up and as soon as i went to restart the car, i heard a plink sound and it started to run really rough. Pulled the valve cover on the passenger side and found 2 rockers lying there. Turned out the 2 exhaust valve seats in the number 1 cylinder dropped and held the valves open. I pulled the engine and had both heads machined and all the valve seats replaced. Also had inserts installed for the spark plugs. Apparently the valve seats in the number 2 cylinder were slightly loose too. I think this was all a result of a mild overheat a year prior when my fan cracked.

I'm thinking of just getting the heads ported and getting a good valve job with some, bronze guides and oversized seats. I did some research and found some negative reviews from Modular Head Shop so i won't be using him, but i heard nothing but good things from MPR in Boynton Beach, FL. I just gotta wait for my brother to get his garage cleaned up so we can start with the tear down.

 

[IllCobra]

Actually, I probably won't get the heads ported. I'm not doing cams or upgrading the blower anytime soon so why bother, right? I'll just focus on getting a surface and a good valve job with upgraded springs, retainers, bronze guides, and oversized seats.