Had a strange thing happen with my 85 Laser/Daytona today. This past summer I put in a set of roller cam followers and cam. Torqued everything down to spec and off I went. No problems, engine actually gained rpm a little quicker, nice little upgrade (don't care what anybody says). Went to work this morning and everything was hunky dory. Got out of work and when I fired it up, it was only running on 3 cylinders. Got it home and started pulling plugs- 1 through 3 were all good, #4 was soaked in gas. Off came the valve cover. Found the cam follower for the intake valve laying between the 2 hydraulic adjusters. Nothing damaged, just laying there. Loosened up the cam and tucked it back in, torqued everything back down, then spun the engine over (coil unplugged) and rechecked torque, everything stayed in place. Still gotta put the valve cover back on, but everything looks good. Cam's not chewed up, follower's not chewed up valve and spring look good. No damage. My thought is it popped off when it first started and the hydraulic adjuster hadn't pumped up to pressure or the follower was sitting juuuuuuust right. Possible bad lash adjuster? Seemed pretty dang solid. This happen to anybody else?

 

Well, it did it again this morning. After I put everything together after the last time, engine ran perfect until this morning. So, I gimped it to work and pulled the cover off again, and there it was, laying in the same spot. Had 4 co-workers all looking at it (I work in a repair shop) and they were all scratching their heads. Mic'd the cam, checked the valve spring, cam follower had no damage, valve isn't binding, heck- one guy even got out his EXPENSIVE AS ALL GET OUT optical scope, pulled the plug, and checked out the valve head from the inside. Nothing, no reason for it to pop off. Lash adjuster is holding pressure with no problems. So, put everything back together and no problems after that... So far... Still scratching our heads...