Reply to "removing valvetrain question"

Sheldon, thank you very much for posting. I in no way wanted to bring you or your company's quality into question here.

I believe I was sold an engine that had been run to, or past it's service life, and do not blame the rocker failures on anything but use, and age.

I was told by the previous owner that he had $24000/$27000 (he said both) in parts alone into the engine. He said the heads cost $7000 total, and they had $4000 Jesel rockers in them. This is what I was told when I went for the test drive and was considering buying the car.

I also directly asked how old the engine was (in miles) and was told 5000-6000 miles, and I directly asked if the engine had had any issues, and/or if there was anything I needed to know about this engine. I was told the engine never had any issues, ran great, and should last a long time with proper maintenance.

The car DID run well, lots of power, but I am totally guilty of not having a proper pre-purchase-inspection done, and I took what the seller said at face value.

ALL of this, is on ME. I accept that. I'm over being butt-hurt, I just want to fix the engine so I can drive the car.

As it has turned out, much is very different from what I was told about the engine, and the rockers have, and are, failing, but I believe because they were used up, run hard, and probably run well past their usable life expectancy (and possibly abused-I can only assume).

I appreciate your posting, I eagerly await the report, and as I said, I am more than willing to replace the set with a new set.

I assume the steel rockers are more expensive. Depending on how much more expensive they are, I'll see if I can afford them.

The engine will not see too many miles, so I'm hoping aluminum will be OK. The steel rockers are a LOT more expensive I believe, and I'm just trying to keep this engine running long enough for me to enjoy the car, and save enough to rebuild or replace this engine.
I'd like to spend as little as possible to keep this engine running at this point.

Seeing as the old set of aluminum rockers from you lasted so long, I think the aluminum ones will be fine for me. I won't be pushing the car like the previous owner did, mainly weekend street drives, a track day possibly, maybe an autocross, and I won't be revving the engine too high.

Thanks again for posting here, I didn't mean for you to get involved in an internet discussion, and I never doubted the quality of your rockers.

I am discovering that the engine is just old and run hard, and in need of a rebuild, but it DOES run well, oil pressure is great, compression is good, so I'm hoping the new rockers will have me back on the road.

While the engine is apart I'll be checking everything else out, spring pressures, lifters, etc.
I think the valvetrain geometry is OK, but I'll check that as well if I'm able to.

Thanks again for your input.

Mike Simon