[BillyGman]

Shawn,

it's good to hear that you've found that problem in the nick of time! I noticed that you've put synthetic oil in it already. Have you put any miles on this engine yet? I know that they say that piston rings don't take nearly as long to seat as the rings did a few decades ago, but as far as I know, even with today's piston rings, you still need to get some miles on the motor to allow the rings to seat before you switch to the synthetic oils. You might want to consider that. Just a little heads up for ya. Feel free to correct me though if you know something that I don't about that.

 

[BillyGman]

Well, it would cost a little more than that for new rings, but hopefully that myth buster that you read is true. As far as the rocker arm stud and the rocker arm coming off, I don't see why that would have dropped a valve, but I think you're fortunate that the loose stud coming out didn't damage the threaded hole in the cylinder head because repairing a threaded hole on a cylinder head isn't exactly the kind of work that you would want to perform with the cylinder head on the engine.