V6 Turbo valve gear

Has anybody had valve gear problems ie Cam followers breaking or tappet adjusters coming loose?
Is there any known problems in this area ?

Not really, although the later turbo engines with the ally rockers have a peculiar ability to sound tappety when they aren't. What's the problem?

If oil supply fails on a rocker, then the shoe gets eaten and things start to sound awful very quickly. As long as not too much shrapnel ends up in the pump, the rocker can simply be replaced.

The rocker jets can be drilled out slightly to increase oil flow to the rockers, usually only necessary on lumpy regrinds.

When I turn the engine over on the starter there is a loud clicking from the LH rocker cover at the clutch end.
I guess i'll remove the cover and see what's going on.

Thanks for the info.

[BIG_MVS]

Hi Colin. How is everything else going? Any pics of your project yet

If I'm understanding you correctly, and it's not just a very loose tappet, it sounds like you've eaten a rocker shoe. If it gets bad enough, the rocker starts striking the cover, otherwise it just sounds like a sewing machine

If I'm right, when you take the cover off, you'll find one or two rockers that apprear to have a large amount of play in the tappet. If you try and adjust it out, you'll see the tappet noticably lower than all the others. This will last about 5 minutes.

If it's #4 cylinder, then you can probaby change them in-situe without pulling the engine, but the chances are that you'll have to remove the timing cover.

I have removed the near side rocker cover to discover that No6 inlet valve appears to be stuck, giving a fair amount of clearance. The spring height is a few mm less than any of the others.
I am now thinking about it.!!!
Any thoughts any body.
Colin.

Might be worth having a good look at the valve spring to see if it is fractured or broken, the other thing I would do is to turn the engin over by hand to see if the valve moves any further open when the rocker gets to max cam lift, or does the valve appear to be stuck fully down.

Hi,

.. not sounding too good :-/

when you last drove it what happened, when did you first know you had the problem - any indications, noises or anything else funny?

obviously need to know why the valve is stuck down, if the spring hasn't broken as John says -should be able to prise it back up though in that case. However, piston contact or exhaust valve contact is all possible depending how far down the valve is stuck

can you post some pics?

I don't have a great deal of free time these days, but if you get really stuck I'm just down the road from you (St. Giles way) when I'm back down south, and would be happy to look if it helps. Hope it's not serious though, not much fun otherwise.

Cheers

Thanks for that offer. I may well take you up on it.
The car has not been driven for a number of years but I have had the engine running on a provisional set up. (Had to source turbo, mountings etc) with no heat shields etc.
Still investigating.