[twinmill28]

Short and skinny, the Daytona puked up it's no. 1 exhaust valve rocker arm. Doesn't look like anything got damaged or destroyed, the rocker just popped out. My inclination is to figure out how to stuff it back in, but what made it go in the first place and how do I avoid that happening again?
The car is a 91 4 banger (non-turbo) and has been driven by my wife's dad it's whole life, so yeah, the little old lady story, and it's only got about 76K miles on it.

If I can figure out what happened to the pictures that I was going to use for this post, I'll put 'em up. For now, use your imagination, the very first rocker on the passenger (timing belt) side of the engine, laying at the back of the head and everything else looking in order. A couple small scratches on the side of the cam, but nothing that I can see where the roller contacts the lobe.

 

[twinmill28]

Ok, the pictures finally showed up from my phone.

 

[twinmill28]

No, it wasn't over revved, I've been driving the car for the last several months and haven't thrashed on it at all--ever. So it didn't float the valves.
It made a really strange rattling noise last week when I started it to go to work, but settled down almost right away and ran good for the next week. Then when I started it to go to lunch the other day, it started popping and running rough, which is when I would think the rocker exited stage left.

How difficult is it to put the cam back in? I worked on my truck as a teenager but grew out of it as I became able to pay someone else who knew what they were doing--this was almost the same time I realized I didn't know what I was doing. I've got decent mechanical skills--just never been fond of working inside the engine. Can I just unbolt the caps for the cam, slightly tilt it up enough (gently) to put that rocker back in, then torque everything back down?
What are the "followers" that you mentioned?
Thanks for the quick reply.

BTW---just found that you're over in Tallahassee, we're in Niceville, just north of Destin. Are you in the Florida Mopar Club? We went to a car show in Panama City back in February, were you out there by chance? There was one 'Tona but I don't remember what it was other than black.

 

[twinmill28]

I was talking to a buddy earlier today about this and he was saying if I replace all the lifters I need to make sure to use break in lube or cam lube so I don't smoke the cam after installing new lifters. I don't think he had his mind wrapped around this engine set-up, pretty sure I can just soak the new lifters in oil and then install and put everything else back together?
I did a quick search and it looks like the new lifters will come in around $50-$80 for a full set? I was already planning on replacing the timing belt when we were in the early stages of "what the Heck went wrong". So I picked up a new belt when I decided to replace all the plugs, wires, cap n' rotor. Turns out the rotor's never been replaced on the thing--76K miles! Looked like it came off of the Titanic, I was amazed it was still firing and running as smoothly as it did. Anyway, all the belts will get replaced and i guess I'll get the cam gaskets and try to do this right.
The backstory on the car is my wife bought it new in 1991 and her dad pretty much wouldn't let her have it (they titled it in his name for insurance purposes and he became a dick about her ever taking the car). So he's had it at their house in Calgary until two years ago when he started talking about selling it. She decided it was finally time to take ownership and we brought it back to the States---drove it 800 miles and ran great. The car would probably be mint if he would have kept it in the garage, but even for 21 year old, it looks really good and the interior is in nice overall shape. It even still has the aftermarket Alpine cassette deck she installed in '91! She'd bought another Daytona several years later, 93 Iroc, so giving this one up to her dad wasn't as bad. We brought that one to the States 10 years ago but sold it in the heat of family life. It was also in really good condition.
Anyway--I'll get all the parts together and find a torque wrench and get this sorted. I did some searching and reading on the forums and found some stuff about the timing and replacing the timing belt, but I'm thinking I'll buy a repair manual as well. This is new to me as I never realized you timed these things from the back of the engine!

 

[twinmill28]

Man, I just typed out a long reply and forgot to hit post!
So this will be way short.
I'll go ahead and get some lifters, $50-$80 is what I found them online for. I'll also replace the cam gaskets and timing belt, along with the other belts. Do I need to use cam lube, or break in lube on these, or just soak them in oil?
When this problem first popped up, we thought it might be a bad plug or wire, so we replaced those, along with the cap and rotor (cap and rotor never replaced in 76K miles/21 years!)
I tried looking for your pics earlier, but only found one of your 86. We just got back to Florida last July, so still not tuned in to the shows around here. I hadn't heard anything about Ocala, is that a good one? This is my wife's car, and she's big into the car shows, she sponsored a bunch over the last 5 years we were in Utah. So that's more her bag. She's wanted to put this car in some here since there really aren't many Daytona's driving around.
As for timing the engine, I did some reading on the forum and found some posts saying how to do it, I've never timed an engine from the back!

 

[twinmill28]

That's really tempting, and what my buddy suggested to do--just put in a new lifter and stuff the rocker back in. How did you get the valve spring compressed enough to get the rocker back on?
I'd love to just slap this sucker back together and keep driving it. If another lifter gives me fits, I can look to replace them all at that time.

 

[twinmill28]

Wow, the Daytona's been sitting in the garage for a long time according to the start of this post! My buddy just asked for his spring compressor back so I got on the car last night and stuffed the new lifter and original rocker arm back in. It went in scary easy--made me nervous with how quick it went.
I decided to turn the engine over to make sure all was right before I put the valve cover back on and guess what----ping, clang, pow---it shot another rocker arm out! I'm gonna guess it froze up in the last couple months of sitting, so I'm going to order a new set of lifters and swap them all out.
I like that "pickle fork" idea for putting the rocker arm back in, the spring compressor was pretty tight in there.
I've been stalling on this project as we've been at the height of summer and working in the stifling heat has not been my priority, I've got another vehicle to drive. I've also been working on swapping out the timing belt--nothing I read prepared me for how bad that particular task sucks. I've taken out what I could up to the engine mount and stalled out there. No wonder people have "project cars" that sell with a spare box of bolts! Do I really need to pull the power steering bracket completely out? Also, should I put a new tensioner in while it's apart? A buddy highly recommended I replace the water pump while I have it apart, I just don't have the money to keep putting into this.
Thanks for the info so far!