Vehicle was purchased used with 50,000 Miles..
4 Years ago the #4 exhaust cam follower was spit out.
Checked for damage, and reassembled, after cleaning the sludge from the areas of the head that oil pools and cooks..
Engine was flushed 4 times over the next 2 weeks, and regular oil changes there after..
The next year, it spit it again, Stuck it back in..
2 years after that, last week, It spit both the #4 and #6 exhaust followers..

I have searched both this forum and Web as a whole, But found no real answers..A lot of other instances of this problem, but no real solutions or explanations for it's occurrence. 99% of the threads I've seen degenerate into either an Amsoil or other Synthetic oil propaganda fest..Those are NOT solutions, They are a band-aid for some other problem involving the valves, followers, and/or lash adjusters..

Anyone have any Ideas or Known Fixes for this problem?

Thanks,
Chris

 

I'm perplexed! I do find it funny that the disassemble/install in sessions on those 2 cylinders as seen below out of the manual. I don't know why? I would assume there is an issue with them in particular.


For rocker arm installation on cylinders 4 and 6, Rotate the crankshaft until cylinder #3 is at TDC compression stroke.

 

first what was the temperature when the cam followers spit out? most happen when it is really cold out!

here are the possible causes

1) lash adjuster not pumping up do to not enough oil changes (before you owned it)
-i have read on some cases where new lash adjusters have fixed some but not others
2) sticking valve when cold caused by:
- cheap gas and short trips. cheap gas contains more olefins than top tier gas does.
olefins get sticky when they are cold and when deposited on valve stems will temporarily stick a valve on cold start. this is actually one of the tests for top tier gasoline. (how many valves temporarily stick on a frigid start). what is top tier gas? you can google it but to sum it up they have more detergents in them than the epa minimum requirements. meaning that they clean the valve train better than cheap gas.
- you could have carbon build up on the valve stems also sticking a valve temporarily on start up.

to fix #2 i would start using a good top tier gas. i use shell v-power. it is reported to have 5 times the epa minimum detergent.
and you should invest in a valve train clean up. some use seafoam at home others have their technician run some bg products through the fuel rail via the schrader valve.
mike