Cylinder Head/Rocker Arm Wear

[GeeOh]

I had to reshape the cylinder head with a standard flat file enough to fit a washer where each rocker arm was wearing itself down where each rocker arm meets the cylinder head at the rocker arm shaft support. My oil was looking like metallic pen ink it was glistening so much with aluminum powders. What got me in there was a clicking that eventually turned into sounding like an airplane flying through a tube. I had to replace the cam shaft as the #1 intake cam lobe was worn with a trench from the roller-bearing eventually siezing and pitted. I found chunks of metal and learned that the bulk of it came off the rocker cover from the rocker arm hitting the cover and also busting at least one chunk off the rocker arm (thanks to a mechanic reving the engine checking it out- crack! oops). A year later I had to go in and replace the camshaft again as the same #1 intake cam lobe was pitted again and worn with another trench as the roller bearing had seized. It had hit the rocker cover again, so this time I filed off enough of an old bad rocker arm to see how much I could file off of the new rocker arm to lower its height without breaking through to the oil flow or plugging it, and drilled the part of the rocker cover away and that now allows plenty of room for no further contact.

Going in the 2nd time I just used a 2nd set of washers and had to file enough room for the HVLs to align on the valve stems, and provide just enough room to use them without interference between rocker arms. I was waiting to find nice thin titanium washers, or to grind some stock washers down, though it works great now regardless. Has more power than when I bought it, and I'd say it's a better engine than 5 miles off the assembly line and my oil is far cleaner (as I'm not making aluminum dust to pass through the system like liquid sandpaper to make more detrimental deposits).

Does any of this sound familiar? I see the same wear in every other 1.3 engine.

[AsylumEscapee]

Took me quite a bit of searching before I cam across this.
I too have seen this problem and dealt with it. I was concerned about washers eating away as well, and breaking into pieces that may clog up oil drain back holes. I was thinking maybe the washers needed to be fixed in place and prevented from spinning.
I too have found this problem to exist in every 1.3 engine I looked at in junk yards finding parts. Many of the cars had replaced cam assemblies, but still had signs of wear on assembly mounts. I was thinking of fastening half round clamps over the rods to line up with the edge (drill and bolt them into the mount for removal purposes)

So let me clarify, you filed away at the side of the rocker arms to add the width of a washer? Or did you file at the head mounts? And how long did the washers last before showing signs of wear?
AND yes I also have intake rocker on cylinder 1 banging against the valve cover, and it has worn at the top of the rocker, and broken out a corner of the plastic inside the cover.

[kingsbury]

I found this thread easy enough.... I'm surprised I haven't heard about this more. I had a lifter ticking that quickly turned into a knocking that would sometimes quite down... figured to do the job soon, but didn't get into a hurry. Opened it up today and WOW.... the #1 intake rocker looked fine till I pulled the assy off. the rocker had been banging the valve cover a bit and the roller had seized.... worse than that the cam had been munching away on the rocker itself, having destroyed the bearing on the roller. I Found the lifter button to be in 3 pieces... having fully seperated... I believe that was the initial cause.

I evaluated another rocker set and found similar and very mild wear in the area of the rocker edges. I Don't think that a washer there is the answer.... I haven't checked out the precision of the lifter centering over the valve stem yet but all other parts appear fine, except the cam which has pits and a little scoring from a failed lifter that "jammed" the rocker down to point of failure. I can take pics..
Did you find any other info on this condition?
Please email me... Kingsbur97(at)aol.com. I have it apart and replaced the rocker (and lifter button) on the shaft... I measured 11 lifters and found that their relaxed length varies from .745-.772 with the average of .756.. Please reply since your post was only a month ago but the original was years ago.

Originally Posted by AsylumEscapee

Took me quite a bit of searching before I cam across this.
I too have seen this problem and dealt with it. I was concerned about washers eating away as well, and breaking into pieces that may clog up oil drain back holes. I was thinking maybe the washers needed to be fixed in place and prevented from spinning.
I too have found this problem to exist in every 1.3 engine I looked at in junk yards finding parts. Many of the cars had replaced cam assemblies, but still had signs of wear on assembly mounts. I was thinking of fastening half round clamps over the rods to line up with the edge (drill and bolt them into the mount for removal purposes)

So let me clarify, you filed away at the side of the rocker arms to add the width of a washer? Or did you file at the head mounts? And how long did the washers last before showing signs of wear?
AND yes I also have intake rocker on cylinder 1 banging against the valve cover, and it has worn at the top of the rocker, and broken out a corner of the plastic inside the cover.