My valves were knockin really loud the other day. As I drove home it got worse and worse. I've been planning to clean my head and get new seals, etc. Do you think I should get performance valves, retainers, springs while my head is off, or what should I do. I was also gonna do other maintenance things like new head gasket, timing belt, etc. But if my valves were knockin, to the point to where it's scary to drive, should I even touch my valvetrain, or can I just get a valve adjustment. I guess it all depends on the damage done right? Do you guys know how a stock rebuild compares to an aftermarket rebuilt financially? Any info. would be great. Thanx fellas.

 

im pretty sure an adjustment is all you need, you dont need to take the head off to do it and its pretty easy to do

 

Do you think it's safe to drive to the shop? It sounds as if something's broken and rattlin around in there. If I drive it, I could probably bend a valve right? Also, what caused this, is it just not enough oil circulating, or hard driving?

 

If it went from the valvetrain sounding fine to loud in a short time, something is wrong. Could be a loose adjuster or could be something broken. If you can get the valvecover off and turn the engine over by hand, adjusting the valves is not much harder.

If it's been getting gradually worse over months, then it just needs adjusting most likely. It's really easy and a useful thing to learn.

 

Does anyone know a website that contains how to's that would show me how to adjust my valves? I took my valve cover off today, and there's small scratches against the wall of the head. Kinda like swirly scratches. Is that normal wear and tear? Or is something not good in my head?

 

Yes those wall scrateches are normal. It where the cast of the head had sharp edges and was filed. Are you sure its even your valves and not a rod knock? If you have AAA or something of that nature I would tow it to be on the safe side. I say that because you could have bent a valve and it could be slightly tapping. You can destroy your heads chambers that way. Go have a compression test done. If it shows low C/R then you either bent a valve or fried your rings by revving too high possible causing a rod knock. Thats all worst case. Your valve might just be clicking super loud and in need of adjustments. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

 

OK fellas. Finally got my baby towed to the shop. I started it for 3 sec. and they said most likely one of my oil seals in the oil pan was bad, causing low to none oil circulation, (dropped oil pressure) thus causing my motor to seize. A new short block if not more is expected. Maybe we can salvage it though. I'll let you guys know more tomorrow some time. They're gonna tear it down and find out for sure though.

 

I was about to say my guess was oil deprivation. That always causes severe noise in the valve train. Sorry to hear about the oil seal. Good luck with the new short block