DeTomaso Mailing List: June 2001, Message #184

Charlie,

I think I got the big "Ah-ha!" regarding your latest engine woes.  You 
currently have a badly bashed roller rocker, a bent pushrod, and a broken 
valve cover bolt.

Recall that just a few short weeks ago, you were hearing from your mechanics 
in France of serious rocker/valve cover interference due to the splash shield 
on the inside of the valve cover.  I theorize that they got the engine 
together, started it up and it went BANGBANGBANG!!!! so they shut it off, 
pulled the cover and found the damage.  A little trim job on the thin 
sheetmetal splash shield and all goes together well, no?

Well, no.  Just a little BANGBANGBANG!!!! is enough to trash a pushrod.  So a 
few miles down the road, you start getting a rough-running engine, and now 
you've got a pretzled pushrod.  Too, the impact may have been sufficient to 
cause the valve cover bolt head to weaken and eventually snap off the bolt's 
body, which is what got you looking in there in the first place.

That's my pet theory anyway.  I think that a new rocker, new pushrod, new 
valve cover bolt and some judicious additional trimming (if necessary) should 
get you totally squared away.  The shop in Spain now doing the work needs to 
have the cam's valve lash specs; I presume you got all that paperwork when 
you picked up the car?

Mike