Had some comp NSA 1.6 promags installed about 6 months ago and now I'm hearing alot of valvetrain noise and I'm pretty sure it's a loose roller rocker or a couple. Right now I'm not at home so I don't have access to any tools to pull the valve covers. It has been making a little noise for a couple of weeks now, but the noise is pretty noticable now. How bad is it to drive with them being loose?

 

If they continue to loosen a pushrod can start to move and get snapped then all hell breaks loose. A $15 toolset from Walmart will be enough to fix this and is something very good to keep in the car anyway.

 

Its not a good thing. I had rockers come loose on me about 3 times while driving. Poly locks can be a pain in the ***. Make sure the lock is tight and give the nut a little turn too and they'll never come loose once you set the lash.

 

Guess I shouldn't be driving it so much until I fix it. One more thing, is it better to set the lash while the car's running or not?

 

I prefer to do it while it is running. It does make a mess but it is much easier that turning the motor over by hand. I usually just do one side at a time as they get kinda hot after awhile. Just loosen it till it rattles, then tighten it just till it stops, then set your lash, poly locks, and one more turn like said above so that they dont come loose.

 

how bout this

$9,000 dollar forged blower motor vs 1 loose rocker


Rocker: 1
Motor: 0

9 grand down the drain due to a 10 dollar rocker

 

ouch thats got to hurt.

 

what would cause a poly lock to come loose? i had one of my rockers come loose while i was driving. when i went to tighten it back down and was tightening the hex screw on the end when the dumb thing snapped in half. wasn't even putting much torque on it. does this happen a lot? could it be a cheap chinese part? i'm cofused why something so important would be so weak/brittle.

 

Use a dab of the Blue Service grade thread locker... I'm telling you it's cheap insurance and keeps things where they need to be. And on removal it's nothing to hard to remove at all.

 

I just had a loose roller rocker cause my SES light to come on. I poped off the valve cover last week and one of the cylinder 5 rockers was loose. Tightened it and the SES light went away. Evidently I did not do too good of a job, cuz just yesterday I had to adjust the driver's side again.

 

Are you saying that you can use blue thread locker on the poly lock or what?