extreme wear on rocker?

[Conrad311]

So after breaking a rocker arm, I pulled the head and tried to get the shaft out and it didnt want to come out, i tried pounding it out with a drift, and got one rocker off but it is stuck in there pretty good. I think its warped, And then i saw the inner side of the broken rocker and the steel insert was extremly worn


i know i need to replace both shafts and all rockers just wondering what might cause this? could the head being warped do this. or could it just be a weak arm? this was the only one like it and it broke.
thanks for any help

[jlevie]

That looks like accelerated wear from poor lubrication. The cause can be from a lack of timely oil and filter changes or running the engine low on oil.

[whodwho]

possibly the oil spray bar above that one is plugged?

[Ruffian]

I would check the cam journal as well. If that's the rocker, the journal could be not very smooth as well.

[RangerGress]

There might be a surface hardening process that is done on the rocker arm face. Once the cam eats thru that, then the softer material underneath could go quickly.

The critical piece for cam/rocker lubrication is oil chemistry, not it's physical properties like viscosity and high temp shear. The additive packages used in oils vary wildly. And the chemistry of the oil last year is not necessarily it's chemistry this year, no matter what the data on the manuf's web site says. See E30tech and BF.c for good oil threads.

That being said, that amount of wear is wild. I like the plugged spray bar theory.

+1 on checking the cam journal. It's gotta be thrashed. My guess is the cam's lobes are worn too. Whole head is probably junk.

[SpecM]

possibly the oil spray bar above that one is plugged?

that's my vote, but it could have been caused by oil sludge

the cam is probaby shot too

[Conrad311]

So can only work on my car on the weekends but i just checked out my head and i cant even get the rocker shaft out, but i can feel the grooves it wore into the cam lobe. I think it was the spray bar that caused it because there was a lot of varnish and crap on it. its strange that it only got the intake rocker though, the exhaust is perfectly fine. I suppose it has its own oil port though. I think the heads warped, i dont have a straight edge to check it but i cant budge the rocker shaft more than 5 inches, and ive tried pounding it with a 3lb slegde and a drift but its not having any of it. so im just going to try to get a used head on here and throw that on with all new rockers, shafts, valve oil seals and hope it lasts for a long time.