Thanks Heyyou, I did recheck timing today and it's all good. I pulled the head after work today, was able to pull the left head without removing the intake. Just pulled the radiator, the accessory bracket came off with alternator and AC still bolted to it so it wasn't bad getting it off.

Looks to me like a stuck valve guide. Don't think the rocker pushed the valve open enough to impact, would have to open pretty far to hit the piston. No other cylinder made impact.

Edit: Guess the intake will be coming off again, still need to replace the busted lifter and inspect the cam for damage.

 

Valve hit the piston, and bent. Need to find out why.

Wonder if it stuck open, and hit, or, if it simply opened to far, and had its bad experience.

 

Wow, sorry about the rework here Beeker. However, it's quite valuable for you to come and share the issue, plus detail out the way of tracking down the root cause. Kudos to you and look forward to again, learn something more.

 

Going to measure the amount of lift the non adjustable rockers push the the valve off the seat. If it barely hit the valve and bent it then the valve would be stuck open even farther and the next rotation would impact the piston even more causing the valve to bend more and stick open more.

Can I just get my dremel out and smooth out the piston surface? I don't want any hot spots melting a hole in my piston.

 

Pulled the stuck valve, it has a high spot on it. The valve is not bent at all as far I can tell using a straight edge, I'll let my local machine shop check it when they look at the guides. It was extremely tight even with the high spot raised up out of the guide, had to tap it out with a hammer, rubber mallet wasn't getting it done. I checked the intake valve next to it and it moves free by hand but a very snug fit.

Maybe revving to 3k rpms with new heads 4 minutes into breakin caused a hot spot to weld to the valve stem? Going to call Odessa Clearwater and see what they can tell me about that.

 

Thanks Wh1t, happy to share what I learn. Most of what I know about this truck came from you fellas here on DF so glad to help others not make my same mistake - especially with lotta guys on here wanting to cam their rig that have never done one before like me.

 

You can smooth over the dent in the piston, but don't get carried away, I'd do it by hand with fine grit sandpaper.

Every head should be gone over by a competent machine shop, I bought my Eddies used and the valves were still too tight.

Sucks having to do a PIA job twice, I hate working on my Ram because the engine is sooooo far back in the engine bay.

 

Glad I can can just smooth it out and not replace piston.

My machine shop said he seen this a lot, says he don't like what he called an interference valve grind that won't let valve seat completely and overheats the guide. Told him bout the rockers I used that wouldn't let the valve seat and he thinks that too was a factor. Also told him the valve guides are too tight. Not sure I'm going to let him do the work. Don't want him to change the valve grind that will cause the valve to drop lower and change stem height. Cost would be $200 to $400 for the valve job.

Also talked to Bob at Clearwater Cylinderhead, said the guides like to overheat on these heads, probly cause their ad on ebay says non-adjustable rockers are fine below .525 lift. Wants me to send the heads back and he'll rework em. That'll cost around $200 just for shipping, think this is what I'll do.

Can I reuse my brand new ARP headbolts that have been torqued down once?

Edit: Talked to the machine shop again, they took a little more time and explained what their process is, they only grind the valves down .001 inch and take the depth change off the tip of the valve stem so the height will remain the same. He explained that an interference valve grind is where they grind the valve seat at 3 or 4 angles and load the valves in without mating them, the final seating of the valve is to be worn in. They don't like that method and say overheated valve seats have been the result from it on many occasions. My shop does a 3 angle grind on the seat and matches the valve to it. Decided to use them afterall.

Another thing that may have contributed to the stuck valve is these heads were purchased 22months ago sitting on my shelf, I did not remove valves and re lube the valve guides before installing, didn't know I needed to.

 

Well here's an update on where I'm at.
Valve job is done, was only $149 plus the replacement of 1 valve was $60, had to wait over a week for Odessa to get it to me.

Installed one head last week and the second one was installed today as soon as the machine shop finished the job. I reused my ARP headbolts.

Sent my JBA headers out to powder coating, they are stainless steel but were beginning to rust and are only a year old. that's about $245

Still waiting on my Harland Sharp adjustable rockers and guideplates to arrive. Ordered from John at Southeast Performance, he was a great help in getting advice and what parts to order and more importantly which parts not to use. I highly recommend him if needing guidance. The rockers and guideplates ran me $459. I will need to drill holes in the valve cover baffle above each rocker stud to allow clearance for the polylock fasteners.

Since I'm waiting on parts and the radiator is out of the way I removed my trans cooler to install my external trans cooler thermostat that I bought a long time ago because it's been mentioned that the built in stat tends to clog. I removed the thermostat from the cooler and put the cap back in place with lock ring and nice thick RTV plug behind it. I was expecting some sludge or build up in the thermostat but it was very clean. I also checked the trans check valve for build up and that looked nice and clean too.

The rest of my parts should be in tomorrow but I won't get a chance to work on it till sometime next week. Not much left to do just need to install the rockers and intake. Looking forward to driving my truck again.

I believe the cause of the stuck valve was solely from using the fixed non adjustable rockers on my custom cam. They pushed the valve open when torqued down when the valve is supposed to be closed allowing hot gas past the valve and overheating the valve guide.

 

Got my powder coated headers, external trans thermostat, and half of the adjustable rockers installed. Working on modding my valve covers to fit over the poly locks on the rockers.


Powder Coated headers, adjustable rockers installed






Removed trans cooler thermostat



Installed external trans thermostat