Why my rocker arm fell apart? Pics inside!

[Frey7190]

So I took apart my X, because I seemed to have been burning coolant and my valve cover gaskets were dripping oil onto the manifolds, causing me to burn and have smoke coming from my engine compartment. So I went all the way down to the heads, and noticed something odd!

-- First off a little background, this explorer only has 91k on it. The engine was rebuilt from bare bones in 2002 when it had 65k on it, due to some mechanic throwing junk into the engine and causing my valves and components to break and blah blah blah. Then in 2008 when the car had 80k on it, it started to buck at stops, had a real rough idle, and had no power. Took it to the shop and they said my fuel injectors were bad... $1500 later, I had new injectors and still a rough idle.. there follow up to that... I needed new spark plugs... Got new plugs and injectors, and the car drove fine until now..

My parents weren't really in the mood to spend another grand fixing this car which isn't driven everyday, its mainly our utility/back up car. With that being said, my parents were just going to park this thing on the street and just let it sit with this problem... Not ok with me because I love this explorer.. It was my first car, and it holds a bit of sentimental value to me, so I took it upon myself to rebuild it (which im in the process of doing).

-- Back to the main point, when I took the rocker arms off I notice this odd thing, the exhaust rockers were all indented from the exhaust valves! The intake rockers were all fine. So I looked at my cylinder block and noticed that the exhaust valves sit differently then the intake ones! Is this normal?? (See pics below for further explanation)

All comments, responses, questions, welcome!
Thanks,
James

Pictures:

 

[scas]

either wrong valves, overly strong springs, but I really want to say that the spacing between the rockers and and the caps was way out of whack. I don't have the spec here but its supposed to be in the the thousands.. I say springs, cause it might need the extra umph to compress the springs, and the valve itself cause the compression might be forcing the valve up too soon. Is there damage to the valve face?

 

[Frey7190]

Valve Faces:
All look fine, remember its the exhaust valves that are in question (the smaller valves), and they all seem fine... One of the intake ones seems to have a small pit in it, but I ended up not replacing it since it doesn't seem to have any trouble..

 

[Frey7190]

.. Those are the cylinder heads before I cleaned them or anything.. straight off the block.. ill post pictures of them after I cleaned them and stuff..

Also are the springs supposed to require about 150lbs of force to push them down?? I weigh 150 and I really have to give them a good push for them to even slightly go down.

 

[scas]

so its either spring strength, or valve lashing? (I can't remeber the term). You said it had a really rough idle, did you hear a really loud ticking noise?

 

[Frey7190]

^^ Only when I was driving it, I would sometimes hear a faint ticking, but nothing crazy..


My Audi S4 has mad valve noise, but that fix is for another day.

 

[Frey7190]

What I did notice though is when i sprayed Carb/Choke cleaner into the intake and exhaust ports, it leaked through into the actual cylinder area.. I noticed this because after I sprayed them down like mad and left a good amount of the solute in the chamber (I did this to help clean the carbon buildup they had) the paper towel they were sitting on was wet...

I then took my tilted the whole thing enough to see that it was coming from where the valve and the cylinder head meet up. I dont know if thats a big deal to worry about, maybe because the fluid is basically extremely cold alcohol.. I just thought id share that and get your comments

 

[Frey7190]

More importantly, what should I do about the rocker arms being destroyed like that?? The spring are OEM replacement, I dont think you can adjust the strength of them..

Is that how the exhaust spring setup looks? Or is it missing that retaining/washer that makes it about plush with the valve like my intake valves have??

 

[scas]

I'll grab my book in the morning and talk to another guy I know that works on them, but something dosen't look right to me about the setup. I can't pick it out right, but something is nagging me about the pic. Like that you have burning on the right side, but the scoring on the faces are in different directions.. I'll get back to you..

 

[Frey7190]

Thanks Scas, I appreciate that. The build has been postponed until wednesday morning while I await the dealer parts... Those rocker arms were on the car so tight that I had to have the car towed to my local shop for them to end up breaking 3 bits and charging me 100$ to get them off. Same with the cylinder head bolts, all of them were stuck... Not even an impact wrench, breaker bar, or sheer strength could take them off!

 

[scas]

http://www.explorer4x4.com/lifters/lifters.htm

Found this while searching.. 9 pics down shows what you have, but a bit better..

 

[jd4242]

Dont use delta

 

[Anime]

The indentations on the rockers are pretty common for these Explorers, caused by both poor design, and a lack of oil to the area where the pushrods meet the rockers.

Ford manufactures revised rocker arms and complete rocker shaft assemblies to fix the issue. The assemblies are a heck of a deal at $80-100 ea. Get them through our forum dealer FORDSVTPARTS or Torrie at fastpartsnetwork.com. Be sure to get new pushrods too.

You can also get the delta cam kit, but I suggest going with the OEM parts.

 

[Przybysz]

BUMP because Anime is still an active member... Where do I get these rocker arm assemblies now? I believe I may need 2 of them.

 

[jd4242]

BUMP because Anime is still an active member... Where do I get these rocker arm assemblies now? I believe I may need 2 of them.

Use sealed power or oe ford..

If you have a advance auto near you they are the cheapest.order online with coupon code..

Or rockauto sells them...

 

[Anime]

BUMP because Anime is still an active member... Where do I get these rocker arm assemblies now? I believe I may need 2 of them.

Ford discontinued the complete rocker arm & shaft assemblies, so they are no longer being carried as an active part, but you can still get them at a lot of Ford dealerships that kept them in stock, or some places online that still have stock. They discontinued them pretty recently, so it's not like they are gone completely by any stretch, but it may take a few phone calls and emails before you find two for shipping. I'd call all the local and nearby Ford dealers, (plus any Mazda dealers since the Navajo uses the same parts), since you never know, you may find a local dealer that has two left and will sell them cheap.

You can also just buy individual rocker arms, though buying 12 of those (2 for each cylinder) will usually cost you more than a pair of complete rocker arm assemblies would.