Hmmm, this sounds very similar to what just happened to my engine.
sudden loss of power and then a regular clunk noise when driving. When
stationary and stepping on the gas pedal the engine would make the clunk
noise.
The engine had a few other problems so I am currently putting a new
engine in. I will take a look at the rockers once I have the old engine
back, I am still interested to find out what was wrong with the old
engine.
cheers
John
--- parrotthead01@comcast.net wrote:
> Same thing happened to me last December. I was cruising at a steady 45
> mph
> when I experienced a sudden loss of power. Limping into work, I could
> see
> no obvious problems upon inspecting the engine. I opened the valve
> cover
> and looked down to see that one of the rocker arms was missing over the
> valve spring!! I popped the valve cover off and saw that the rocker
> arm was
> rotate 90 degrees out of the way because the push rod had fallen out
> from
> under the other end of the rocker arm!
>
> I checked the tappet screw on that valve to see if the screw had
> changed.
> It had not. Thank goodness that it was the intake valve that quit
> working!
> (I wonder what would happen to the engine if the intake valve kept
> working
> with the exhaust valve closed?).
>
> Anyway, I determined that that particular push rod was 1/4 inch shorter
> that
> the others, with a noticeable "beaten" look about the upper end. With
> the
> additional clearance on that push rod, I theorize that the tappet end
> would
> sometimes hit the flared section of the push rod enough to wear it down
> over
> time. I screwed down the adjusting screw and drove her home.
>
> What caused this? I'm still not sure.
>
> New push rod, no problem.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: spitfires-owner@autox.team.net
> [mailto:spitfires-owner@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Bill Gunshannon
> Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 10:45 AM
> To: spitfires@autox.team.net
> Subject: Engine problem
>
> Anybody ever see this??
>
> I was on my into work last Monday when I noticed a sudden loss of power
> while cruising up I81. I got off quickly and pulled over into a nearby
> parking lot and popped the hood. The #2 plugwire, instead of being
> att-
> ached to the plug was pointing straight up int he air!! Not a good
> thing. I used a pair of pliers and cobbled it back together. It ran
> badly, but I did manage to get it to the parking lot at work. I left
> it there for the night and came back the next day with a new set of
> plug wires. Installed them and fired it up. The engine sounded like
> it was missing badly and had these really loud knock. I popped the
> hood again and went through all the possible problems I could think of.
> Checked for reversed plug wires checked for a cracked distributor cap.
> Found nothing. At this point I decided to ask for help from someone
> more
> experienced than me and brought my brother into it. I feared at this
> point
> that I had dropped a bearing although I couldn't imagine how as the car
> had not been making this noise when it was shut off the last time.
>
> After a listen he suggested popping the plugs and taking the valve
> cover
> off. before he even got the plugs out, he spotted the problem. A push
> rod had fallen out from under its rocker arm!! Needless to say, this
> made the noise and vehavior of the engine crystal clear. The big
> question
> is, how was this possible?? He had to turn the tappet all the way out
> in
> order to get it back into place and after this the car ran perfectly.
> I could see this happeneing if the car were being pushed and the valves
> started floating due to weak springs, but the list drive before this
> was
> at a very conservative 25-30 MPH beacue of the missing cylender. As
> one
> more note, it was not the same cylender that had the bad p[lug wire and
> the dropped pushrod.
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