Bent pushrods leading to car dying"
08-10-2010, 10:29 PM
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Bent pushrods leading to car dying" Hey guys. I posted this in my other thread but I'm not getting any answers and I'm getting to the point where I'm going to be pulling heads off soon.
Long story short, I overrevved the crap out of my engine and started getting the sewing machine sound. 99% positive I bent some pushrods. Took the valve covers off today but it got dark out before I took the rockers out.
Well, like an idiot I drove the car a couple of miles the other day and ended up having to get it towed home. Made some funny metal clanking noises on the way and when I tried to fire it up again, it died a few seconds later. I could feel the clanking through the shifter.
I honestly think I'm just going to take off the heads and replace them with some cheap low mileage 98 heads. Gotta put in new springs anyway and I have a bad feeling there is a bad valve or two in there. I'll probably end up upgrading to LS7 lifters as well for the FI build anyway. Slapping on low mileage heads would be cheaper than replacing valves and make the spring swap a breeze.
Any reason to NOT pull the heads at this point? Since the car is sounding that rough and died on startup, I figure the problem must have passed the point of bent pushrods and moved onto valves or lifters. Unless you guys think that something else is wrong with it. Any opinions here would be greatly appreciated.
While I'm here, got a couple more questions. Can you reuse the stock head gaskets if they are in good shape? All I really think I'll need to replace is the timing cover gasket (gonna throw on the LS2 chain and Melling oil pump), head bolts, and crank balancer bolt.
Long story short, I overrevved the crap out of my engine and started getting the sewing machine sound. 99% positive I bent some pushrods. Took the valve covers off today but it got dark out before I took the rockers out.
Well, like an idiot I drove the car a couple of miles the other day and ended up having to get it towed home. Made some funny metal clanking noises on the way and when I tried to fire it up again, it died a few seconds later. I could feel the clanking through the shifter.
I honestly think I'm just going to take off the heads and replace them with some cheap low mileage 98 heads. Gotta put in new springs anyway and I have a bad feeling there is a bad valve or two in there. I'll probably end up upgrading to LS7 lifters as well for the FI build anyway. Slapping on low mileage heads would be cheaper than replacing valves and make the spring swap a breeze.
Any reason to NOT pull the heads at this point? Since the car is sounding that rough and died on startup, I figure the problem must have passed the point of bent pushrods and moved onto valves or lifters. Unless you guys think that something else is wrong with it. Any opinions here would be greatly appreciated.
While I'm here, got a couple more questions. Can you reuse the stock head gaskets if they are in good shape? All I really think I'll need to replace is the timing cover gasket (gonna throw on the LS2 chain and Melling oil pump), head bolts, and crank balancer bolt.
08-11-2010, 12:29 PM
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Pulled the rockers and pushrods today. Had a couple of very slightly bent ones and one really bent one that was on the farthest back cylinder on the driver's side. Is it even worth replacing them with the hardened ones and trying to start it again at this point? I think I would rather just pull the heads and take a look at everything in there.
08-11-2010, 02:54 PM
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Ha yeah this one gets ridden pretty hard and at over 100,000 miles things like this are bound to happen I suppose lol. It had absolutely no problems with it the first 2 years I owned it, but in the last couple months things have just been going from bad to worse. The funny thing is it all happened right after I bought the turbo and started buying parts to get it fitted on!