it started making a clacking sound. so when i got home, i pulled the valve cover, checked all the valve clearances. every one was perfect till i got to the last one and i found that the locknut was completely gone from the bolt. i cannot find the nut. what should i do next? could that nut have damaged anything else? anyone else had this happen?

 

whenever you have a peice of metal in your engine where its now supposed to be, something is probably going to get damaged. what to do next??? ummm i'd start by finding the nut, replacing it with a new and even the rocker also. then hope the "clacking" sound isnt still there....

 

yeah i hope it just made its way down to the oil pan.....and stayed there.

 

sounds like mines when i overreved it but the only thing with mines is when i overreved it had a rough idle when i stopped then a week later my timing belt snapped. So come to find out my bottom end is bad I'm thinkin that i spun a bearing. But i took the head off and inspected it no bent valves. But the #4 or the #1 piston is acting like it's trying to build up compression after we put the belt on and started it and then shut off then try to start it again. No compression

 

well i adjusted my valve clearance to spec on the one without the nut, put it back together and cranked it. it sounds normal, so i'm pretty sure nothing is damaged. no more clanking. i think the clearance between the rocker was waaay too much. tomorrow i will pull the pan, hopefully i will find the nut in there. if not i'll be pulling the head.

 

yup, just find that nut. and that valve wont stay within spec for long without it. however i cant imagine how over revving it would have caused it to come off. are the threads stripped..??

 

do not run the motor without the locking nut.

 

i'm not running the motor without. i just started it to check for the sound. i drove it all the way home with it like that before. if there's damage, its already been done. the threads didnt look stripped. maybe i didnt tighten it down enough last time i adjusted my valves...but that was over 9 months ago and no problem till yesterday, when i revved to 8700rpm.

 

damn son

vtak much?

The nut is either still in the head or in the oil pan. There are no secret passages it could have gone down

Was it cylinder #4, all the way by the distributor, or was it #1?

If things fall in the #1 side, they have a better chance of falling on top of the windage tray, which could be bad. If it fell down the other side, I guarantee you its in the bottom of the pan now.

 

If you have the aluminum pan and you've got a strong magnet then if you drain the oil you can actually drag the nut to the oil plug hole and fish it out with some tweezers/pliers/telescopic magnet. Assuming of course that the nut isn't hung up on the windage tray.

Neodymium magnets freaking rock! This one might be overkill though.
:D

 

holy crap! a neodymium magnet that size would probably coagulate your blood

 

Dude just bust open an old hard drive and take the magnet out of it, those HDD magnets are ridiculously strong.

 

well i pulled the oil pan today. the nut was from #2. it was not in the pan, i also pulled out the baffle and checked to make sure it wasnt on top of that. couldnt find it!!! you think i should pull the head? or take the cams out or what not?

 

you would be able to see it in the head, and unless it got sucked up through the pickup somehow it should be in the pan somewhere. maybe its lodged someplace?

 

look into the oil return passages in the head. some of them are too small to pass a nut.

you don't need to pull the head.

 

some of them are too small to pass a nut.
you don't need to pull the head.

lol thats too funny, either way your gonna have to find that nut, I suggest pulling that head just to make sure.

 

i checked the oil pickup. the screen in there would keep it from going anywhere. i checked the oil passages with a magnet and nothing came out and i didnt see anything in them. gay gay gay

 

well, if it didn't make that noise before then that nut must be in there somewhere... under the rocker shafts perhaps?