Looks like a really nice cage job in that Firebird. A friend of mine autocrosses a '93 LT1 Camaro and a '98 LS1 Camaro that are all basically stock, sounds like the same type of class you run in. I'll keep an eye out for you Sat.

 

Thanks for the hospitality. Mission accomplished!

 

No prob, glad you came out and to have met ya today.
I got home and popped my valve covers off and found 2 rockers on the driver side and 1 on the pass side that the poly lock had backed off of and the #8 cylinder had blown the header gasket out, looks like the rear bolt had loosened up....2 completely unrelated things happening at exactly the same time....at least it nothing serious.

 

Good to hear it was a simple solution ....

 

I'm having a funny noise out of the valve covers still that I think is the polylocks backing off....what kind of sound does that make? I just haven't had the time to take off the covers and readjust them.

 

Once they get slightly loose, they back off in a hurry because the allen set screw is no longer engaging the stud, so it can spin freely off....but if you have stock height valve covers, usually the lock nut can't back all the way off as it hits the valve cover...mine are close enough that the allen set screw can't back all the way out either as I had one backed into the valve cover gouging it out some.
Its just a loud tick that gets louder as it backs off more. It can sound just like a header leak as well at different rpms....in my case I had both..header leak and loose rockers.

Mine was actually 3 broken poly lock nuts..discovered the cracks in them as I tried to reinstall them Sunday...this is the second time I've broke them...first time was I tightened them too tight...this time they were less than 20ftlbs on the allen lock...so out with the Comp BS and I've ordered some ARPs which have a 190,000 psi tensile strength.... The guy at the speedshop said he had some break on him recently too, so its not just me.

 

Damn that sounds like a serious problem! I didn't know those were prone to break. I was running my car hard on the street one night and missed third gear a time or two, so I'm wondering if over revving it caused my issue. I'm not sure the polylocks are hitting the valve covers, because I have already taken it off and messed with two rockers to readjust them and hand checked the others, wouldn't that have been noticable? The noise also goes away at idle when warm, but is noticable when you rev it some.

 

If the poly locks were cracked you would have been able to loosen them by hand, no wrench would have been needed. A header gasket leak depending on its severity may only be noticable at certain rpms. Need to carefully feel around for a leak without burning yourself.