I'm afraid I don't have a ton of info to offer, but I'll provide as much as I can. First off, here is how the problem started. I was driving her very easy, cruising in 5th gear around 55mph when all of the sudden the car lost power and I started getting an awful ticking noise coming from the motor. Now, I've had 3 instances in the past where I've broken a valvespring (and been lucky not to break anything else) and the noise and lack of power felt VERY similar to what happened here. Because of my location I couldn't stop driving, but I slowed down quite a bit and didn't take the engine past 1500rpm in any gear. About 5 minutes after the initial loss of power, the SES light went into a sequence where it would flash for a few minutes, go solid for a few minutes, then go back to flashing. This repeated until I got it to the shop.

Before I go further, info that will probably help. I have S2 ARE heads. These are an older set (got them in '00) which have the 2.08/1.65 valves with single springs. After the last valve spring break (~8k miles ago) a brand new set of K-Motion 750's were installed on both heads.

So, I took the car to my local Chevy dealership and dropped off a brand new set of K-motion 750's, hoping it was another spring or two. So, they didn't start work on it til this morning and called me this afternoon with this update:

The SES code they pulled was for a problem with cylinder #8. Unfortunately I didn't get the actual code # or any specifics about it (though I can if it will help). They pulled the valve cover for that side and saw that the springs were ok, but the rocker arm for #8 was broken. They tried to do a "compression" (?) test on #8 by putting 100psi of air into the plug, but couldn't hold the pressure and apparantly one of the valves wouldn't seat properly (?). He said they want to take the head off to see what's up. They are going to send it to another local shop to have it inspected. However, they said they suspected that a valve might be bent. Ok, that's really all I got out of him and sorry, I didn't really know what else to ask him. Obviously I made sure he understood that he wasn't looking at a stock head and that whomever is going to inspect it needs to know that.

Soooo....input anyone? What do you think it could be? I did some searching on here to try and figure this out and it sounds like the ticking I might have heard could've been a valve hitting the #8 piston? Ouch. Will that cause permanent damage? Will the piston need to be replaced? If it is just a bent valve, how big of a deal is that to replace?

I totally appreciate any feedback or info you could give, including questions I should be asking the repair shop. Thanks again....

----------------------------------------------------

Eric - 1999 Camaro Z28 - M6
Performance: ARE Stage II H/C (224/236 @112),Nitrous Express,LS6 Intake,ASP Pulley,FLP's w/ORP,Borla,Whisper,ARE Ported TB,ARE oil pump,SPEC Stage3 Carbon w/288 Slave,B&M Ripper w/ Momo ****,HP 160 Tstat,MSD Wires,NGK TR6,BFG DR's,!FRA,!CAGS,Mobil1,Superchips Programming
Dyno (N/A): w/ MACS+cats: 404.5 rwhp, 381.4 ft*lb torque
Suspension: Eibach Prokit,Metco LCA's,BMR STB,Lakewood APHR
Appearance: 18x9.5" Budnik Tillers w/ Nitto NT555,Wings West Grille(red),APC Clear Corner Lenses,SuperWhites,Red Calipers,Tint
Stereo: Clarion 7475 CD,EQH-5100 EQ/XOVR,Soundstream Reference 644,Diamond Audio Hex components,3 JL 8W6's
Other Performance: 2001 Suzuki Hayabusa: D&D Carbon Fiber Slip-ons,Timing Retard Eliminator,K&N,GSXR-750 Pegs,Zero-Gravity Windscreen,Gen-Mar Bar Riser,Lockhart Clear Signals

 

Anyone?

 

could very well be a bent valve... lots of ticking with it when it was running?

either that or the rings are shot and wont hold for a leakdown test which would be better than doing a compression test... should be able to know if either rings or valves depending on where the air is escaping.

 

Yes, there was a really loud ticking noise coming from the firewall/engine-bay as I was driving and the ticking moved with the revs.

I called the dealer yesterday to try and get more information about what SES codes the computer was throwing. He said that there wasn't any "hard" codes, mostly random misfires. Though there was something (didn't specify) that pointed them towards #8. They should have that head pulled today in order to see what's up. Which side is #8 on?

A few follow up questions:
1.) Again, how complicated is it to replace a valve, if in fact one of them is bent?
2.) If the valve was hitting the piston, will the piston have to be replaced?
3.) If T/A Medic is right, and the rings are shot, does the motor have to be pulled to repair them?

Thanks again...Eric