Was installing my new Wade cam in my EL Falcon, did all the usual things, bled the lifters tested them all, did everything and checked everything twice over. It would appear though that one of the lifters went a bit crazy, was starting the car up and she was idling a bit rough (to be expected though I imagine) had her going for about 5 minutes and she was starting to come good again. Until I head a very strange clunk! noise. Turned the old girl off and took the rocker cover off and found my problem.

Inlet no. 4 lifter had gone a bit crazy and had seized and gone off the valve and was sitting on the valve spring cap on a C**k-eyed angle. So i proceeded to remove the rocker gear to fix this problem. loosened the rocker gear bolts just so I could get enough tension off to get the lifter out, I decided to compress the spring to help the problem.... and this is when things went bad.





As I was compressing the spring down to get the tension off the lifter and spring, TWANG! off goes the valve spring cap, collets and top of the valve all in one piece "f**k! What was that?" are the words I said, after assessing the situation I realized I was not in a good position.

So just thought I would share with you guys my journey, and wondering if anyone has had the same situation? I hand turned the motor over 2-3 times and it was running for awhile too. s**t weather at the moment and I almost drank a bottle of jimmy last night (depressing drinks because of the sudden death of the Falcon) so the head will have to come off tomorrow night.

haha. just weld it back on.
that sucks man. maybe a good time to upgrade those valves now.
never seen it happen in 5-6 yrs of mechanic'n. even in taxi's with over a mill on em.
lucky you.

Only snapped one? Soft. I snapped 6 in the one go.

f**k up cam timing :p big whoopsy

Yeah, took it to work and they've never seen it snap like that, I must be unique. Ah well $117 for new; Head gasket, tappet cover gasket, inlet manifold gasket, exhaust manifold gasket and a valve.

Just sucks that it's raining, I have to move the falcon down the driveway then the torana and then move the falcon back up the driveway... Pretty much have to wait for the rain to leave