Well after a thorough cleaning of the combustion chamber and swapping around of injectors and and wiring to no success, I spun the engine over by hand to figure out when the air was leaking past the valve. A few times around and it became pretty clear that if any air was getting by the valve while it was close it wasn't much and it wasn't until the valve started opening that a rather strong puff of air could be felt. So it seems like whatever crud was in there it isn't or wasn't causing the intake valve to not seat. Hypothesizing that perhaps it wasn't a problem with the intake valve, but that the exhaust valve wasn't opening for some reason I drained the oil, lowered the engine (again) and found this:

Pretty isn't it?

So I just want to bounce some things off of you guys. There's no way the rocker could have just broken randomly and somehow the bits and pieces then migrated their way into the combustion chamber, right? Obviously whatever it was that chewed itself up in my combustion chamber and is now completely gone, came into contact with the valve and thus broke the rocker. Is there any chance that the valve isn't bent? I seem to remember the rocker being sort of a fuse that often will break before the valve will bend, but is that just wishful thinking? Obviously the exhaust port is sealing itself up pretty well otherwise I wouldn't be getting such forceful exhaust out the intake, right? Is it in no way odd that something completely reduced itself to sand grain sized metal shavings and there was no damage to either of the spark plugs in that cylinder? What is the recommended course of action from here? Should I tear the whole thing apart and see what's up or should I just pop in a new rocker and get some compression/leakdown figures and go from there?

Thanks!

Pop on a rocker on it at this point. If the valve is bent.. it will break the next rocker you put on it. This sucks man. I read your last post where you described the metal coming out the exhaust. I felt so bad that I didnt reply..


B

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the support and info. It certainly is frustrating and painful, but at least now that I know what at least one problem is I can start fixing it. Got a new rocker on this evening, and it's all adjusted. Engine turns over by hand with no resistance and I'm going to pop the right side header off tomorrow to see if I can hear any leaking at the valve. I'm putting the word out locally that I'm looking for a borescope to buy/borrow as I'd really like to get an eyeball on what the hell kind of party is going on in there (and with all that bumping in grinding going on, why I wasn't invited).

Thanks again for the advice.

Adam

Adam,

Do a leak down test.. This wil show you if the valve will seal
100% . Even if you can get the valve to open , but if it's bent in anyway your going to lose compression and your 6 will not run smoothly- off balance.

Maybe some one 'left' a nut / screw in the air box( if your still using the CIS) and it got sucked in.
I have seen this before.

Anyway just any fyi