Did I just ruin my head, rocker shaft and rockers?

[CubbyChowder]

Ugghh, this looks bad...


I'm following the article on how to strip and rebuild an M20 head and followed every step as described and just came across some carnage. As I was tapping the exhaust side rocker shaft out, something happened and it severely scratched the insides of the rockers, the holes for the shaft in the head and the shaft itself. Don't know how it happened, but I'm sure this is not good...

[CubbyChowder]

I'm realizing now that I tried to pound out the whole shaft while rocker 6 was under full load...which was totally my mistake. I'm so bummed out on myself right now. Do you guys think my head is trash since all the holes are scratched? They are pretty deep scratches to be honest

[Ether-D]

"Pound" is generally a bad word when one is referring to removing a rocker shaft. It could have been the last guys fault. I had a head that had been rebuilt and the guy who did it used a 3# sledge to "install" the rocker shafts. Same thing happened. Your rockers look a little bad. I'd replace them. Your head is probably ok. If the gouges are really deep, maybe a bit of jb weld to fill the gap. I used a deep well socket wrapped with emery cloth to smooth the insides of the rocker shaft holes in the head.

[whodwho]

You can probably smooth them out and get away with it. The rockers are easy to replace, on the head if the gouge doesn't lead from an oil hole to the edge of the bore you are probably ok.

[rav320uk]

Smooth them out with some emery paper, if the scorching isn't too bad you should be ok.

[CubbyChowder]

Thanks for all the responses guys, you have me hating myself a little less at the moment. Basically what happened was after I tapped the first rocker free, I never released tension on the last rocker, and kept tapping it. At some point, something ground on something somewhere because there was a bit of buildup of metal shards in one of the grooves, and as that buildup passed through each rocker and each hole in the head, it was scoring the surfaces. I was pulling it out by hand, twisting it back and forth (and it was pretty difficult, I was putting quite a bit of power to it) hence the zig zag scratches. They are not suuuper deep, but definitely noticeable. I can feel them when I run my fingers over them. I will try the emery cloth

[LJ851]

You can probably smooth them out and get away with it. The rockers are easy to replace, on the head if the gouge doesn't lead from an oil hole to the edge of the bore you are probably ok.

Smooth them out with some emery paper, if the scorching isn't too bad you should be ok.

I agree. Shave the proud areas of the scratches down flush, a small pocket knife with a curved edge works well. Try to remove only enough to let the shaft slide in smoothly.

Make sure you didn't flare the end of the rocker shaft by pounding on it as well which is quite possible with the scratches it left behind.

Replace the rockers and shafts if damaged.

[rav320uk]

I would be replacing the rockers and shaft for what they cost.

[AndrewBird]

The head should be fine as the rocker shaft doesn't spin inside the bores once installed. The rockers do rotate on the shaft though, so I would replace those. Maybe upgrade to Ireland Engineering HD rockers?

[CubbyChowder]

Awesome, this ended up not being as bad as I had anticipated. The shaft itself is actually fine. I'll get all new rockers and smooth down the holes in the head. Thank you for the input everyone!

[whodwho]

If the shaft gouged the head on the way out make sure to find what did it, usually you replace the shafts as they typically show wear where the rocker ride

[TobyB]

...and double- check the end of the shaft- likely as not, there's a burr from being
pounded, and that's what did your gouging.

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