Southways to the rescue

[MarkWebb]

On the last leg of my 3000 mle road trip. The car expired at the end of a very spirited drive from Modena to Montreux just before the Grand St Bernard Pass.
A split second funny noise and then a loss of power. I was able to continue at 85MPH for 1km to the final toll booth where the engine refused to tickover. No loss off oil pressure no overheat no outward signs whatsoever. I am guessing a rocker or rocker stud has given up.
My international recovery insurance proved to be totally inadaquate as usual.
A call to Paul at Southways had him on the tunnel with land cruiser and trailer very quickly to come to my rescue.
Once again BIG UP to the Southways boys.

[GTRCLIVE]

Now that's customer service....

[Steve_D]

This customer service thing is all very well....I've had to make my own coffee all day today and no doubt all day tomorrow.

Steve

[F.C.]

What recovery insurance / cover were you using, why inadequate?
Spill the beans, I'm looking into international recovery right now.
F.C.

[LuckyP]

Just had a vision of Paul and Steve dressed as members of International Rescue - FAB Prof!!

[GTRCLIVE]

Steve_D said:

This customer service thing is all very well....I've had to make my own coffee all day today and no doubt all day tomorrow.

Steve

So what you saying Steve ? Pauls just the office Girl then, you do all the work...

[Captain Slog]

LuckyP said:

Just had a vision of Paul and Steve dressed as members of International Rescue - FAB Prof!!

[LuckyP]

Nice one!!!

I think even the Prof wouuld be flattered be that!!!

[MarkWebb]

Now back in UK. Basically 24 later than I would have been without the problem. All thanks to Southways rescue service.
International recovery is designed for people who know nothing about their car and who just need it fixed asap or shipped back to England if this is not possible. It is necessary to follow their procedure which cannot be changed.
ie get towed to a local garage. Have the garage diagnose the problem and order parts if necessary to fix. Only if the parts are not available in a reasonable timescale will they go to the expense of shipping car back to UK. Also the levels of cover were not very good in my case. It will be necessary to have cover in case other solutions are not available.

[MarkWebb]

Here we go. photos showing the problem. roller has dropped out of end of rocker. It is completely undamaged as is the shaft which should locate it. The spring ring which fits in the groove on the other end of shaft is missing and is also missing on at least one other rocker. The lucky thing is that the 2 other bits are one of the valve spring retainers broken in half. Luckily the other half is still in place or vave would have dropped into cylinder and destroyed piston etc. Engine is AS 550 hp and has only covered 4000 miles since being delivered in 2005. As always all input welcome although slagging A/S off is not. This is a high spec part that they have bought in from a reputable supplier who has obviously had a assembly issue.

Click on photo to see others

Edited by MarkWebb on Thursday 23 September 12:16

Edited by MarkWebb on Thursday 23 September 12:18

[Pb3]

Hi, looks a little like mine, the manifold that is (Edelbrock EFI with fuel rails?). Unlucky with the rollers, but what lifters/followers do you have, and is the valve adjustment as it should be. I broke a rocker stud earlier this year and that was, I strongly suspect, my fault for over tightening the adjusters. Mostly I think the AS stuff is reasonable, the only cheaper part in mine was the crank, although assembly may be more of an issue. Mine leaked, since I rebuilt it, I have no leaks!

[MarkWebb]

I adjusted tappets recently and double checked clearances. Please note nothing is broken. The shaft that holds the roller has literally fallen out!

[dal2litrefrogeye]

Hi sorry to here about your bad luck , am i reading this right ? does the missing spring clip retain the roller shaft in place ?, ( hands up not been under my rocker covers yet ) i wonder ( and im not trying to tell you how to suck eggs )is it worth checking out the springyness of the remaining clips ? have you worked out why it may of come off ?

[MarkWebb]

Look at 3rd pic. It seems that shaft is pressed in to rocker and knurled bit at end grips into rocker. However there is a small ring which fits in the groove at the other end. Not a circlip just a ring which is a loose fit but would help stop shaft coming out. this ring is missing on at least one other rocker but there is no sign of the shaft being loose. Seems like a strange design to me. I am looking at replacing the whole set with comp cams ones as I can get no reply about buying them singly

[GTRene]

only 4.000 miles...I read a lot about those engines around that few miles, some 6 some les...
keeps you thinking to buy a LS7 or audi/bmw/lexus V8.

sad story...such things shout not happen, let alone with only so little miles....scary.

[MarkWebb]

GTRene. One thing to note is that this is not a failure by AS. Nothing has broken or been put together incorrectly by them. The rockers are from RPM who I gather are a respected supplier of race parts. This part is easily up to the job. Unfortunately one (or maybe more) of the rockers has been badly assembled causing this problem to occur. RPM have yet to respond to my emails whereas AS replied straight away and are doing what they can to help with an engine which was supplied in 2005. No probs with AS at all

[Pb3]

Hi Mark, when I was rebuilding my engine this winter just gone I talked with a respected UK engine builder who told me that my RPM crank was ok, but it was a cheap part and the tolerences would probably not be ideal. I could not find much out about them, do you know more (other than the fact that they take a while to respond).

Gail at AS is very good with support I would have to agree. I was also happy with my AS motor, it did 18.5K miles without too much trouble before failure of the cam, which would not have been down to the build or spec. More interestingly two builders told me that I was extremely lucky to get that sort of milage (and use, 1000+ miles on track) with solid roller lifters, these should be removed, inspected and rebuild/replaced every 3000 or so miles

[MarkWebb]

Hmm a reply from RPM. They say that the rockers are only for use with hydraulic lifters????????????? This is what their site says
MAXX Stainless Steel Roller Rockers
Stainless steel material for superior strength
Extra Large trunion for increased durability
High rpm stability with no deflection
Large roller tip for less wear
Full needle bearing trunion for increased
horsepower & quicker response
These are for the serious racer who wants the best

Having quoted that to them they say ahh but that is wrong!
I think its bullst! since when do serious racers use hydraulic lifters?

[GTRene]

who assembled them in your AS engine...
that guy should have known then?
also that guy is to blame me thinks, if it was not a material fault/defect.

Edited by GTRene on Friday 24th September 21:21

[V8Dom]

more worringly is that if all AS 550hp engines are built with these rockers are these going to fail as well?

Gail at AS has always been very helpfull and professional when Ive talked to them, so I would email them with that answer and see what they think...I feel if that reply is correct, AS will be very worried and will have a serious talk with their supplier as to why they supply those parts to them.

Dom