Oh my god.....

So I drove 250 miles with some rather loud valvetrain noise and smoking left tailpipe, but didnt think much of it. In Mt. Vernon, IL we decided to pull a valve cover and ....... #1 intake rocker arm had come loose, broke off and disintegrated about 3 inches of pushrod! (At this point I was freakin' out) So I pulled what was left of the pushrod out, and the lifter was missing!!

What do we do now??? It was unanimous, we tore it down right there in the Fazoli's parking lot.... found the lifter in the galley, unscored. Cleaned it, through it back in, new pushrod, new rocker arm, changed the oil, and she ran all the way home!!!

I have the worst luck with valvetrain.

Man alive! Actually ours was pretty uneventful until we attempted to enter Wisconsin and got stuck in some sort of traffic jam for almost an hour. Glad to hear it all worked out for you.

Coming into Louisville big S curve before the bridge over the Ohio River a policeman was parked in the fast lane waving for everyone to slow down.

I was in the middle lane, pulling trailer, back-off hit brakes an cop jumps over the wall into Southbound traffic side.

I look in mirror an a Jeep is pulling out behind me runnig 50 MPH an stuffs the police car in the rear.

My trailer is rite at the police car at this point... I'm at about 30 MPH

Back wheels of the Jeep go 2 feet in the air, whole front end crumbles.

I had to stop for the Southbound accident that caused the slowdown. Police cars were coming South in the Northbound lanes so I guess the officer was all rite. He must have called it in.

I had the best seat in the house.

No damage to my rig.

Rob Mirabile aka onabudget had a similar problem on the way home from CB a few years ago. Fig's dad also had a lifter collapse. This past weekend I broke a wheel stud and a parking brake cable clip.

Tom,
That's funny you should mention that, Rob was actually just telling me that story this weekend. I started looking for Uhauls at first like he did, but evidentally Uhaul is only open on weekdays between 9am-5pm. :rolleyes:

Be greatful it wasn't an exhaust arm. The gases come back out the intake and you feel the gas peddle jump.

Did the poly-lock back off? I think Rob had a rocker arm break somehow. Good for you that you did the correct thing and got it fixed. I would have just removed the bad parts and driven home with no pushrods/lifters for the number 1 cylinder. You might have even gotten better gas mileage that way. ;)

My trip hope was pretty easy. A little warm for the motor. At one point I had to pass a big-rig in the emergency lane because the ******* would NOT get out of the way. My car needed air that his rig was hoggin' up. Even at the poky 55 MPH he was going my temp needle was just-a-climbin'

Just after we got into Illinois we saw a guy standing on a bridge. I thought what is this guy doing. I was hoping he wasn't going to jump down into traffic. Actually it was a cop taking radar. There were four or five cops on the on ramp on the other side. I was the only one in my pack to get by. I was puckered for the next few miles though.

Scott, I was wondering about your tip home. ;)

Drove through Alberto, wasnt too bad, other than that no problems.

After all the trouble I had going up there, the trip back (700 miles) was uneventful, except the coolant temperature was getting high in the heat. Whenever we stopped, it really got hot. But we got back into the home town and stopped for a sandwich a few miles from the house.

When I came out, my bottom radiator hose had popped off and there was a green mess. It could'a been a lot worse!