So I was driving my corvette back home to ND and started getting a miss and then a slight ticking. Long story short I made it home and parked it. I started tearing into it trying to find maybe a bad injector ticking or valve lash gone to hell but instead I pulled the valve cover and I had a rocker spun sideways with the pushrod missing. And for the other valve the push rod is rammed THROUGH the rocker. From what I can tell the rocker that the push rod is missing from is the only one that's not a roller rocker so I'm left to think the guy screwed me.

So anyways I came back on here to get opinions on what to do from here. I bought the car for 2k, put about $300 in it so far in a new water pump,( what a flipping nightmare), new smog pump, cap and rotor, and Ac Delco plugs. 91k on the car now.

I am planning on doing a leak down test to see if maybe, somehow the valve was down when the piston came up and that's what rammed the pushrod through the rocker or what, just assuming that it's a interference motor. I hope not as I don't want and don't have the time to pull the heads. The interior is not great but the body has no clear coat pealing. I'll post a pic of the car and the head but what is your guys' opinions on what I should do from here? Replacement long block/ part it out/ cut my losses/ pull the intake and replace just what is broken? Everything mechanically was awesome in it until that time....

Thanks,
Brandon

 

You got a good deal fix it and enjoy.

 

Get it running again and dump it
How does the pushrod look is it bent or broken? Hoping you dont have a lobe going bad on you. Dont panic, good news is its an intake valve side not an exhaust

 

Since it was running with an issue before, the missing push rod is probably rolling around in the valley.

i have never seen a push rod go thru a rocker arm. They are hardened steel! Perhaps you were not getting oil to and thru the rod.

Definitely an issue with the one rocker arm a not roller. Some one was taking a short cut or there was a problem with the roller that was installed. Interesting that they are right next to each other.

 

Blown head gasket on that cylinder caused it to fill with coolant and hydro-lock?

At this point I'd probably be pulling the head to take a look.

 

I'd replace the whole set of rockers and pushrods with decent upgrade, I never liked those cheap stamped roller tips. But 1st I'd put in two used of each stock or w/e if you got em to make sure it's all good and do a proper lash on all.

A car with 91k your gonna put $ into and it's been noted sometimes these cars are $ pits. I got mine at 89k and did a lot of maintenance to get it up to my comfort level to beat on.

You got a good deal, so if you think you got screwed maybe you should just fix n flip.

 

Intake off, remove the lifters for the cylinder with the rocker arm problem.

Place a straight edge across the bottom of a lifter & shine a light behind it.
If the lifter base is convex & not scored the cam is ok. If concave or scored the cam is toast.

Individual lobe lift can be checked with the lifters in the bores using a magnetic base dial indicator.

 

They look kind of dry. How was the oil pressure?

 

perceived zero lash + or - a few turns ......... Bubba that you

 

TKzOil pressure was always between 20 and 40. I am going to guess that the rockers they put in were just cheaper than all hell because it didn't ware through the rocker, it tore a circle out of it off to the side like a hole punch. Which side is the intake ? It was backfiring out the intake there for a few miles? Could the exhaust side have gone first so it was trying to push the exhaust out the intake and that's what did it? And is there any other way to get the old pushrod out? I have a c5 z06 so this c4 means almost nothing to me. I have found another c5 about an hour from me with a hyrdrolocked motor for really cheap. I just bought it to flip it hoping it would make it back for an easy sell. But I am going to pull the spark plug and do a leak down test to make sure the valves are not bent.

If it was hyrdrolocked with coolant either coolant will come FLOWING out of the cylinder or I would've known from the smell of coolant under the valve cover/the oil level rising a bunch, right?

Also why would a bad cam have anything to do with it? The only thing can wise I could see going wrong was if the side with the missing pushrod was the exhaust and the cam went flat on that side, the pushrod could've fallen out only letting the intake open? Idk...

How hard is it to pull the intake and is there anything else, other than what's been stated, I can check to diagnose more with just what I have apart now?

 

Duh I missed the fact the roller tip on that rocker is missing completely

If you pull the intake off might be a good time to get rid of those multec injectors those are problematic, dont forget to replace the orings going into and connecting the fuel rails

 

You probably bought someone else's headache - that rocker is a "regular" non-roller tip style rocker... someone probably replaced it and the pushrod and sold it - the other one is probably suffering from lack of lubrication or the valve springs are going into coil bind....


You're going to have to check everything out methodically - pull the intake and lifters out of that side - check them out and replace them if they look questionable at all - but if they look like you wiped out the cam then I'd lean towards replacing the cam/lifters/pushrods/rockers/valvesprings...

You may get lucky and only have to replace a pair of clogged or bad lifters, a couple pushrods and some roller tip rockers...

 

Why dump it, even if he has to swap in another 350 it would be worth it.
I don't know if that's a roller engine or not, but I'd get some rockers & push rods & put them in.

 

Personal opinion thats all doesnt mean anything really

Hes just got it if I understood his post into it 2300 which isnt bad, if he stuck a motor in it and interior work- unless its a keeper for him hes gonna lose his shirt sounds like he really wants another C5....thinking cut the losses and move forward. Doesnt sound like hes into it thats all

Who knows he may have a cheap fix and get lotsa miles?!
(Pushrod & stock rocker arm)

OP the intake valve is going to be the one thats NOT in front of the exhaust coming from the head. Were you hammering on it when it went or just cruising?

 

Sort of looks like that exhaust vave is stuck down. Probably have to pull the head . If that cylinder is not hurt, the fix could be that easy .

 

I have seen a similar case before. One pushrod broke through the factory rocker the same as in the picture. When I removed the rest of the rockers, several had severe pits where the pushrod seats in the rocker. I replaced all pushrods and rockers. Still going strong after a year. At one time, the oil pressure was low, and driver reported ticking noise. A few quarts of oil solved the problem for several months, then the rocker broke.

I think this may be easy to fix.

Ken