Loose rockers?
 

Hey guys. I have a 91' 6 bolt 2.0 non turbo. I bought a new head for it and had the whole engine redone.. I put the timing belt on 1 tooth wrong.. The exhaust cam was clockwise one too many teeth. I used a breaker bar to turn the engine over and nothing hit. I installed the enigne and it wouldnt run right so i knew the timing was off. I fixed the problem and it resolved the problem.. But my head was making a racket. It was remanufactured at a local machine shop. I installed the stock lifters and rockers and cams. I noticed that all of the rockers on the intake side were loose. Do you think that the head was manufactured wrong?? When the cam is off the rockers there is about 1/16 of play or almost 3/32 of play. Actually I was able to take 2 off the head without removing the cams!! Do any of you guys understand whats wrong? If the timing belt was 1 tooth off on the exhaust side do you think it would have hit the valves? Like I said before i cranked it over with a breaker bar and nothing was hitting.. It rolled smoothly.. When I had the engine running it idled good too..

Re: Loose rockers?
 

How long did you let it run? If your lash adjusters are fully bled down still I would think there would be some play? Seems logical anyway..but maybe not?

Re: Loose rockers?
 

So your compression is good?? No bent valves at all??

Re: Loose rockers?
 

I call BS. Bent valves for the win!

Re: Loose rockers?
 

The only few things I can think of is:

-Your cams are regrinds and are way out of spec to touch the rockers.
-The cam caps aren't torqued down.
-Your pistons hit the valves, bent the valves, and now the rockers are loose.

Re: Loose rockers?
 

Been there done that more then once and I call that this happened. Let us know.

Re: Loose rockers?
 

If he was off one tooth, I can't imagine that they would be able to come into contact with the pistons. Unless he has aftermarket Skunk2 cam gears like I do, and forgot to point the dowels up rather than have the two timing marks meet (they give you two exhaust gears).

Re: Loose rockers?
 

If it hasn't run long, the lash adjusters just aren't pumped up yet. If you truly were only 1 tooth off with stock cams, then you should be fine.

Re: Loose rockers?
 

How long did you let it idle when it was running?

Re: Loose rockers?
 

it sounds like you may need to add shims, if the lifters are already primed

Re: Loose rockers?
 

Does the engine run right now? If not, bent valves.