Hello all. Before I get to my issue I want to say how very glad that this forum exists. A big thanks to all of you who offer assistance to others here. By reading posts on other threads I was able to zero in my own problem even though I didn't ask for help directly 'til now. Moral of story: even if you don't help a user directly with their problem, you may help some poor fool down the road later who reads what you wrote. So thanks.

Ok the vehicle in question is a 98 Ram 5.2 100% stock and I'm the original owner. Engine was swapped 3 years/30k miles ago with a rebuilt long block from Jasper Engines. I did the work myself and do all my own regular maintenance per service manual. This is a work truck and a daily driver (I'm an electrician). I don't carry heavy loads/tow/race/off road/etc with it - strictly business.

Since the rebuilt motor I have had no mechanical issues whatsoever - has run just fine. The day before the obvious malfunction I had noticed a small spot of coolant on the driveway but it wasn't a puddle or anything so I just put it on the mental task list. Well it must have been going on for longer than I knew cause the next day while driving the check gage lite came on and I saw temp gauge was nearing the upper limit. Luckily I was close to home but on the few mile drive back the clattering started.

And about 1 week, and 100 black thumbprints on my service manual and 50 black thumbprints on my mouse from visiting this site later, I discovered that my vehicle had manufactured a new part for itself as shown in the photos.

It came from #1 cylinder - first valve which I believe is an exhaust valve.

Any ideas as to possible cause? Could ten minutes of over heating really have done this or just exacerbated an existing flaw? The only other thing I noticed when poking around was that oil level was down about 3/4 quart.

I checked the valve for "stuckness" by prying on it but it seemed to move just fine. Compression on that cylinder was well within 10% of the average of the others.

Open to comments.

 

Looks like one of the lifters got stuck resulting in the piston banging the valve. The resulting mechanical shock of this could have beaten that rocker arm to hell.

This problem was probably induced by the combined effect of you being low on oil and overheating (which thins out the oil), but, was not birthed by it. That lifter was probably on its way out anyway. You may not have caught it when you checked the valve for "stuckness", if the oil was allowed thickened back up, the lifter may have released its hold, and settled back to where it should be.

Its also possible that that rocker jumped off of its guide, and ate into the adjacent rocker (but then you would have 2 "new" parts)

 

Is there a way to see if the lifter is still stuck without pulling the intake?

 

I'd expect that if piston met valve the compression on that cylinder would be zero. I'm comfy guessing that the lifter seized in the bore.

Edited to add the part I forgot:

Remove all the spark plugs, get an assistant to turn the engine by hand (NOT the starter!) while you hold a pushrod against the lifter. If it goes up and down it's not stuck. BUT if it did seize in the bore you don't want to just replace rocker and pushrod and button it up because it might have damaged the cam, and even if the cam is perfect a lifter that seizes once will seize again.

 

I feel obliged to say that my input is theoretical, and may not be correct. That being said,

Put it back together and pry up on the rocker with a screwdriver, judge it's resistance against some of the other lifters on that side. Somewhere on this forum, somebody posted a video from youtube on the proper way to go about this check, but i cant remember which thread (I believe drewactual was the op, and the threads title had the word "lifter" in it)

Upon further inspection of the pics, the side of that rocker has some considerable gouges, and being cylinder 1/1 valve, it is adjacent to the valve cover on it's front side (if your looking from the front of the engine). Any marks on the valve cover?

Also, if possible, could you post up some more pics from different angles? It's kinda hard to judge from those two.

 

I've been working on cars for 45 years, doesn't make me an expert and all the theories might be right, but I've seen that caused simply by wear of the push rod against the rocker due to poor oiling, soft part, burr, piece of debris, etc. I would get a new push rod and rocker and put it together and try it. Nothing to lose but a little work and you need those anyway.

 

My question is. Is the Jasper engine still under warrantee? I know you've run it for 30,000 and I don't know jasper's warrantee policy, but I'd check to see if you have one still on.

 

According to Jaspers website, warranty is 3 years, or 100,000 miles..... might wanna check into that.

 

Thank you!!! Good call on checking the warranty! I just assumed 1 year was the max but it is 3 years/100k parts AND labor though I don't know how they'll figure on reimbursing me for my own labor. Guess I'll find out.

Here are some more pics. My original thought was that the rocker arm was just defective and thats why the pushrod pushed through. But your replies have made me wonder if there is a bad lifter after all. I'm going to try Unregistered's suggestion to see if its stuck. If it is then then the obviously a further teardown/camshaft inspection/repair will be required. But if it ISN'T I could still be taking a risk by just popping in a new rocker arm and pushrod. I may have got "lucky" with the rocker arm failure this time but next time it could damage valve and/or piston and who knows what else. That's a big risk. I'm going to have to see how Jasper wants to handle this.

One more question though: my haynes manual mentions a tool that can be used to remove a lifter without pulling the intake(by extracting it through the pushrod hole). Anyone ever heard of that? They didn't give a part number and the service manual has no mention of that at all.

Well off to call Jasper!

oops -not able to upload more pics here. I'll have to go to photobucket

 

I have heard of lifter removal the way you stated (with a long magnet); but the general consensus in this forum has been that it doesnt work, and pulling the intake is necessary.