This can't be good., rocker movement - help diagnosing before tearing Options

[iankarr]

Hi Guys,

So...my (new to me) 74 2.0 FI was idling great and running pretty well, except after warm it would occasionally experience a loss of power at about 3000K. Last weekend I took the dizzy out to clean and lube the plates. Also installed a pertronix and flame thrower coil. Started it up and ran like crap and uber rich. Then realized I forgot to connect the MPS hose. duh. Did that and it started up ok. It was late, so I left the car till this weekend to get the timing dialed in.

OK, so I start it today and hear this tapping racket and the engine feels like it's only running on 3 cylinders. Pulled plug wires one at a time, and it seems all are contributing.

Pulled the valve covers to see if that's where the racket was coming from and figured it was a good idea to make sure everything was properly adjusted anyway. Nothing LOOKS weird, but if I pull backwards on the #2 intake rocker, it will move about 1/4" towards me. Let it go and it returns back to contacting the valve stem. I know it isn't normal, but before I tear into things, I thought I'd check with the brain trust.Bent rod? Beginnings of dropped valve?

From what I can tell, the POs didn't drive this car much, so I wouldn't be surprised that all this new activity is exposing weaknesses....

Thanks!

[Mikey914]

Well if you have 1/4" i would suspect that you at least need to adjust the valve clearance. Ans another member mentioned there coukd be an issue with the rocker mount. Id remove the rocker assembly and inspect the mout. If its ok assemble do a complete valve adjust and start it up.

Had a kind of simular situation with my sons car. Started making noise and lost power. Was running on 3 cylinders.

Turned out whoever installed the tube retainer spring didn't do it correctly and it rubbed on one push rod. It started wearing through until it actually cut in half. Leaving about 1/4" play. It wasn't evident right away. The mechanic he went to said dropped seat, so i helped him retrieve the car. When we got it home and disassembled that's what we found. Replaced the rod, did a valve adjust and drove it runnibg perfectly until he wrecked the car abound 20k later.
Hope this is what happened here as it was an easy fix

[r_towle]

Well if you have 1/4" i would suspect that you at least need to adjust the valve clearance. Ans another member mentioned there coukd be an issue with the rocker mount. Id remove the rocker assembly and inspect the mout. If its ok assemble do a complete valve adjust and start it up.

Had a kind of simular situation with my sons car. Started making noise and lost power. Was running on 3 cylinders.

Turned out whoever installed the tube retainer spring didn't do it correctly and it rubbed on one push rod. It started wearing through until it actually cut in half. Leaving about 1/4" play. It wasn't evident right away. The mechanic he went to said dropped seat, so i helped him retrieve the car. When we got it home and disassembled that's what we found. Replaced the rod, did a valve adjust and drove it runnibg perfectly until he wrecked the car abound 20k later.
Hope this is what happened here as it was an easy fix

Kids....
Rocket killed his first after restoration....