jlw2387

I finally decided to delve a little deeper to try and find the root cause of my 4 dead passenger side cylinders, no compression either. I took off the valve cover to find all 8 rocker arms laying loose at the bottom of the head, and 6 of them were cracked, as seen in the pictures. My cam gear had also chipped out its keyway where it meets the cam. I ordered a new cam gear from ford and am in the process of tracking down 8 rocker arms, but before I put it back together I need to figure out if it was just a fluke or if I need to trace down another problem. I do have aftermarket cams in the car. VT Stage 1.

72MachOne99GT

That's wild. I've seen people posted pictures of the rocker arms (is that even what they're called in our cars) laying in their valve covers before like those were, but never cracked like the pictures show. And the chip in the cam gear is strange as it's right in the middle of it where it should be free from abuse.

Perhaps the force of one of the rockers flying off could have caused that physical damage.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

jlw2387

The chip on the cam gear is where the keyway that used to go into the cam was, without it the cam gear spins and the cam doesnt.

JayC

Looks like the retainers were not installed correctly. It seems odd that several would fail. Who did the install?

jlw2387

I did about a year ago.

JayC

I'd rule out a bad install then. I'll see if I can get you some help on this.

mustangman281

You better get a bore scope and check the top of your pistons. Looks like you had some PTV contact. Your chain is probably stretched.

jlw2387

How would the chain be stretched, the car only has 19K miles on it, and only about 1000 since I swapped the cams.

mustangman281

Thats the only thing I can think of, either that or you lost tention and jumped a tooth. Only ptv will cause that kind of damage.

jlw2387

Ill check into getting a bore scope, what does those usually run at Auto Zone?