I changed the oil in my 98 TA WS6 today and these were attached to the magnetic oil pan drain plug. These are all magnatized in that they will stick to each other magnetically too. Any idea what these are? I want to know what I need to fix and how serious it is. Thanks to anyone that can help. They are next to a domino to show size, I can measure more specifically if necessary.

 

You had a rocker arm trunion puke.

 

Yep..gotta love un-caged needle bearings. Long as you can get them all out and they havent damaged anything yet youll be ok. I just replaced all mine with Comps trunion upgrade kit. It was like $135 and I ordered the install tool kit from Summit instead of doing it the socket way. NO hammer involved and was a hell of a lot faster. Easy as pie too, a monkey could do it.

 

I will accept your diagnosis. I heard what sounded like a lifter tick for a second that went away, makes sense. I just emailed the head of the GM LS1 design team with the same question. How big a risk to drive it to where the shop is to get it fixed or is this just a time bomb that has no answer? I appreciate your help as I was surprised as the motor only has 38K miles and was running fine save for that tick that went away very quickly. Obviously I don't want to have this become a bigger issue but have to drive it to get to where it can be worked on. Also is this common and is there an upgrade to prevent it from happening to some other or just one of those things?

Thanks Much,
Tom

 

Cheap and will prevent it from happening again. Sounds great and answers my question. Thanks to you both. I will get that kit from Summit. I assume I can count how many I have and how many are missing to see if there are any left in the motor. Good they are magnetic and wanted to stick to the drain pan plug.

I am putting an HID kit on my motorcycle or I could just not drive the car at all. I do have to get it somewhere it can be worked on though. It runs perfect but I feel like I should not drive it until fixed obviously.

 

I would not drive it even though the odds are pretty good that it would make it to a shop.

 

I would not drive it.

 

I am sure it is a bad idea to drive it, I just had to ask the obvious. I really do appreciate the help with the diagnosis and the upgrade kit to prevent it from happening again. I will see if there is a way to count what I have found and if not then not sure how to ensure there are no more of these floating around to cause potential damage.

 

I drove mine. Changed the oil and found the same thing. The needle bearings can't get through the pickup screen, the holes are too small.

 

I emailed Summit and they could not answer...said call back tomorrow. Does that upgrade kit contain replacements for all of them? It only shows one in the photo. Seems like a good idea to fix them all so it does not happen again. Glad I have not put a Procharger on it yet. Thanks much., T

 

My worry is that more of the bearings will become dislodged. Finding them all and not having them circulate is a secondary problem. It could not have happened at a worse time...of course.

 

Per your question about doing them all, the upgrade kit does a full set of rocker arms. It has 32 of the caged bearings. There are quite a few videos online you can find that show you the proceedure.

 

Easy to do yourself with just two sockets and a bench vice .





One side (8) took me about an hour and a half.. its really easy once you do the first one and get the procedure down.

 

Ok thanks much for everyone's help. I will go get those and get the things fixed for good. I live near Seattle so we are still having some rain but hope to be out on the motorcycle soon. I guess things could have been worse.

 

If you don't want to do the trunion upgrade yourself, Texas Speed has a set of rockers already done.

 

The socket way is easy and very doable, I just liked the idea of doing it with a precision fixture as I dont want to get one cocked. The tool kit is relatively cheap and comes with instructions. Heres the PN from Summit>> SME-906011 and only $39.99. The Comp PN for the trunion kit is 13702-KIT and a LOT of our vendors on here sell them for around $140. Hinson Supercars was runnign a special for $199 installed when you sent them your rockers but I dont know if they still are. Try a search for them.

 

I did mine in my living room floor on some cardboard with a 8" C clamp and some sockets. It was a bitch to keep straight but nothing major.

 

They do, but a little expensive for me. If you go that route I would just buy full rollers.

TSP rockers are $400

 

Thanks for the tip, and BatBoy too. I watched the video from Comp Cams on the install and it looks simple. On the other hand if they are the same price installed, assuming I bought the installation tool, it is worth checking out. This is my daily driver so getting it fixed fast is important. Seems this is a common issue, my car is a bone stock 98 TA WS6 with 38K miles, so no increased stress due to power add ons etc.. As long as none of those damage anything I will be ok. I will try to account for or find as many of the loose ones as I can and hope to get them all. Good to have found out what it was and that there was an inexpensive fix. Last oil change was 4K miles ago and I only heard an odd slight noise in a valve I had never heard before just recently, then the sound went away.. I am guessing that is when this happened, not long ago. I will do the searches and get a replacement set ordered today from one of the companies, assembled if I can find some for the same amount of money.
I am waiting for a reply from the member of the LS1 design team I know who I scolded for my having to go through this.

Glad so many of you knew what those were so quick. BIG HELP. And the alternatives for the fix too. Makes a rotten event easier to deal with.

 

I did see some more complete sets, and having roller tips as well as roller fulcrums etc.. I have not decided if it is going to stay stock as it is now or if I will go with the Procharger and various mods. If I stay stock I would stick with just the upgraded bearings. If not then the money for the roller rockers might make more sense. In either case I will be glad to get the new caged bearings installed and hope all else is good and stays that way.