Recently i installed a rebuilt engine in my 96 z28. When I first put it in the engine ran great. about 50 miles on the motor later it developed this hideous miss. well i checked all the plug wires and they were fione so I moved to thinking I had a stuck valve or something. well I pull the valve cover from the engine today and it turns out the rocker arm on the #8 cylinder exhaust had come completly off the valve. it is still bolted on but just turned sideways. the rocker appears fine and the pushrod is not damaged but i was womdering where to go from here.

Should i put the rocker back on and set the lash and hope it works or what?

Thanks
Ed

 

Roller Rockers or stock rockers

 

Well when that happened on my Roller rockers I destroyed a lifter, and damaged 3 of the rockers (the self-alligning tabs basically sheered off).

 

you did not tighten them right thats why they came off

 

Stock rockers........

I did not tighten them the engine came pre assembled.

Ed

 

There's a chance that when they tightened the rockers down that the tip was not oriented properly on the valve stem. Sounds like a build error.

 

but my question still remains should I just put it back on or should I even bother looking further into possible causes?

 

In any new engine your supposed to adjust the rockers after bout 50-60 miles then keed a check on them. The lifters wil get broke in changine your adjustment.

 

How do you break in a hydralic roller lifter???????

 

Hopefully nothing broke but you won't know until you try to put it back together., that's what I would do. If you fragged something you sure would have had a lot more problems by now. Re-install it and see if she makes any noise. When I had a rocker get loose several years ago I definitely could hear it.

Hope this helps,
-Christian