I know I boke some valvesprings. Replaced them all. Pushrods look good. About 80 miles after replacing springs, engine sounded like a bearing was going out of the water pump. Kept driving, no SES. Kept on eye on all guages and everything looked good. Noise got louder and louder. Another mile or two and engine starts bucking and sounded like someone threw and handfull of marbles in motor. It really was that bad. Engine would run if given throttle but won't idle. Pull over and have it towed home.
Pulled valve cover, looks OK. Pulled heads and there are some eyebrows on pistons from broken springs. So I decide it's time to rebuild. Pull the motor and start dissassembling. Valves are not bent or knicked. No spun bearings. Nothing in oil pan. The noise I heard was very bad. Like something broke and I can't find any visible damage on anything. The only thing I can figure is that maybe some lifters collapsed. They were comp R's with the proper preload. Springs were old comp 941s. Any idea's on what else to check? I have the block almost stripped, only the crank and maincaps are left and it turns by hand very smooth. I'm kinda stumped. Hate to rebuild and not even know what the problem is.

 

Have you pulled the lifters and the cam yet? Might have dropped a roller off one of the lifters and scored the hell out of a cam lobe.

 

Cam looks great. Lifters look OK but that doesn't mean on of them hasn't collapsed. Have everything apart. And it all looks good but I don't know how to check lifters. They are all together. I forgot to mention that after I took the heads off and they sat for about two weeks, both valve springs of cyl 7 started to rust. I thought that might be a spun bearing but it wasn't

 

I don't understand why you would pull and disassemble the motor without first figuring out at least a hint of the problem.

That said, when you said it sounded like a bad water pump - what kind of sound was it? Engine rattling and won't idle could be as simple as bad fuel pump pressure, lean condition, knock, etc.

A bad lifter will be a consistent loud tap that goes with engine speed, but won't stop the engine from idling.

 

We all jump the gun sometimes. No harm no foul.
I would agree, that it MIGHT not be IN your engine as previously stated.

 

I don't feel like I jumped the gun at all. Some of the pistons have been beat up pretty bad, and it has been smoking a bit. So the enginge had to come out anyway for a rebuild.. Very loud tapping. Not spark knock I know that. Threw a knock sensor code which I should have said before. No play in water pump and it spins freely, I only said that because that's what it sounded like at first then got much worse. It would shake the car violently idleing before it would shut off. Who knows, it's getting a complete reuild anyway so if it still does it when it goes back together at least I'll have the peace of mind that it's not internal.

 

Well that's somewhat of a different story, keep us posted on how you progress.