I noticed my engine pulsating, coughing oily smoke and running very badly (horseshit would better charactorize how it ran). I pulled the valve cover off the offending side and noticed one of my rockers was extremely loose do to a stripped rocker stud. My plan is to helicoil the rocker boss with 2 stacked 3/8" 8mm 1.25 helicoils to entirely replace the stripped area with good usable threads.

My questions:

1) How do I remove the tab on the helicoil before stacking the next one? Perhaps I can remove it with a long skinny needle nose. If I F up and drop the tab into the intake runner...the valve with be closed and i can pop the intake off and fish it out or suck it out with a shop vac.
2) Did my valve kiss my piston when the rocker stud pulled out (not all the way out...maybe 1/4") The cam is a big 595/605 232 111 lsa. I'm lucky if the valve didn't get hurt.
3) And would this incident explain why I was blowing copius quanties of blue oily smoke out the effected side of my engine? I believe oil was being pulled past the rocker stud.

Thanks for any advice or comments,

Bill

 

I would personally pull the intake first and block off the intake port prior to doing this since you need to drill and tap prior to heli-coil installation. That way there is no risk to the cylinder.