Hole in Valve Cover!

Yep - Just as it says, I now have a lovely frigin hole in my valve cover.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on here so any help and or advice would be GREATLY appreciated...

I replaced my 20yr old 1.6 Crane gold rockers with a new set of 1.6 Jegs brand when I recently had my heads re-built. ( cast iron 351W )

I have only driven the car twice since & both times the rockers have loosened themselves? The first time was within 10miles of my house & the second wasn't even 5miles.

The second time I was reving at appx 5500rpm when one of the retaining nuts completely detached itself and grenaded my valve cover - who knows what else? ( the first time I was cruising at 3000rpm & got lucky )

I'm sure I'm tightening the adjusters correctly so I am completely clueless as to how this is happening... Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

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krash kendall said:

Those photos just ruined an otherwise good morning for me, I can only imagine how you feel!

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This happened yesterday - when I opened up the hood & saw what happened I pretty much felt instantly sickened... I actually skipped right over anger & went directly into nausea...

rbohm
well your tiger is junk now, so ship it to me and i will give you $50 for it

do you have poly locks on the rocker arms? if not then likely the stock nuts have lost their locking ability and need replacing.

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Not you again, rbohm. LOL! ( Yesterday I may have taken you up on the $50 )

The Jegs rockers came with brand-new poly locks. I'm starting to think maybe their crap though.

How tight are you supposed to crank down on those things? Anyone ever use locktite on them?

chromedog said:

couldn't have been one of those "powered by ford" valve covers, that you find on any street corner, could it? that truely sucks!

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Thanks man - I know...

The good news is they are replaceable. The bad news is the cost is around $250 for the pair...

I just took everything apart & it looks like I have a slightly bent push rod too.

I have to wonder if this would have happened with the Crane rockers?

iskwezm
I used to have the same problems and i thing id was due to not tightening them correctly. Now I clean off the oil on them(in the center),put a little loc-tite and tighten as usual.Havent had a problem since

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Originally someone on one of the "Tiger" forums advised me not to use locktite - I WISH I hadn't listened. This time they will DEFINITELY be assembled with a thread locker...

I can also say that I haven't been the least bit concerned with keeping everything nice & oil free. In fact, just the opposite. Next time I'll make sure there is no oil on any of the threads before making my adjustments.

Thanks for the tips...

dennis112
Ouch!!!!!!!!!!

Make sure the top of the rocker studs are flat. Poly locks don't work well if they aren't.

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They are - Thanks