I was getting a slight ticking noise from the pass. side valvetrain. I pulled the valve cover, and rockers and the very back pushrod was broken in half. the bottom half is still in there (any suggestions how to get it out). My question is how would this happen, what else should I look at as possibly being messed up ?

 

Did you miss a shift per chance? Over rev will cause this. Try a magnet to get it out and then look in at the top of the lifter and the rocker to make sure they are still round in shape and undamaged.

 

Try one of those push spring grabbers.

The open up a set of "claws" when you push on the opposite end.

They make several types.

You need a borescope to inspect the hole.

You can probably rent one pretty cheap for some peace of mind.

 

I didnt miss a shift, but i was driving the car pretty hard the day before i noticed it. could the lifters be damaged ?? also thanks for the replies

 

how many miles do u have on them? whats your mods? i'm having pushrod problems too on my new motor and i'm 99% sure no over revs or missed shifts...

 

Lifter could be, but probably not.

I would inspect the rocker receiver socket and look at the remaining part once you get it out.

If anything is banged up, well all I can say is that it banged against something!

If you just snapped the pushrod and nothing is beat up, replace it and hope you got lucky.

I would push on the valve to be certain it ain't frozen in place.

 

car has 50k, and I just have basic bolt ons. im gonna try and work on it again tomorrow and hope that all I need is a pushrod. thanks for all the help.

 

Yeah probably NOT a broken pushrod unless by some minor chance you received a set of defective ones that weren't manufactured correctly. I mis-shifted my 6 speed from 5th to 2nd at 75mph, redlined past 7k and well they didn't break but results followed. I would definetely take your heads off and give them a good once over and check the valve guides for warping etc. Pull the valve stems out of the heads if you take the heads off the car.

 

so the pushrod was down in the hole more than the others(the top was barely poking out enough to grab it) so I dont know if that tells you anymore. but it is definatly snapped in half

 

OEM pushrods were manufactured to bend. That is usually the big debate over hardened pushrods vs. standard pushrods. In case you rev too high the OEM pushrods will bend to prevent damage to the rest of your valvetrain instead of shooting through the top of your pistons. On the other hand the hardened rods are meant to stay straight and have a much higher tolerance to high rpms if that's where you run your car all day. In either case getting the rest of the rod out is going to require alot of patient fishing with some sort of pen magnet. If it was me I would definitely remove the heads and check them over, then you can check the valves and piston gouging etc. Maybe it's time for some upgrades!

 

thanks

 

heh... i remember this...

bent pushrods, then found out I had a failed lifter, spun a bearing, along with all my pistons hit by all my valves...

ended up doing a complete engine swap with new AFR heads, and a new cam

let's cross our fingers yours isn't as bad... plus i had 118k miles on her...

 

hey man, if you need some stock length(z06) pushrods 7.4" ill be happy to let you have mine, just cover shipping. no charge for parts.

 

Use a pen magnet and pull it out and install a new one and also visually check the other pushrods and rocker arms for damage. If it looks good then put it all back together and drive it and see how it sounds. If its still jacked up then you may consider pulling the heads to check the lifters.

 

but why would it be sunk down in the hole deeper than all the others ? before I pulled it out I could barely grab it with my fingers. I dont think it was touching the rocker. when all the others were sticking out normal ???

 

The lifter could have gone south.

I am taking for granted your rocker is ok and it's respective valve.

 

Pushrods were never meant to be a fusible link to the valve train. If you get the rpm up there, you can potentially float a valve and pretty much grenade the engine.

 

The camshaft operates the pushrods that in return operate the rocker arms so the valvesprings can open and close the intake and exhaust valves properly. I guess I don't really get where you're coming from when you say you don't understand why the broken pushrod is down further in the head...If the thing snapped like you said it did then of course it's going to fall further down into the hole...is that what you mean? If it snapped, then one piece probably fell down into the valley area of the engine while the other half probably got stuck up between the block area and head...I guess it all depends WHERE the pushrod actually broke in half at.

 

I think what he meant was that he put another pushrod in the hole and it sits lower.

 

yeah thats what I ment