Close call

[TireSmoker]

So I drove the Chevelle to work today. It was a nice day, and I had been avoiding driving it while premium was over $3/gallon. It got down to 2.75, so I thought it would be a nice day as it was sunny and in the 80s. I even went for an extended WOT pass down 480 on my way in, registering a solid 5600 RPM in third gear between State and Ridge. All was good.

On the way home, I was a little more sedate. As I approached my exit at Cedar/Brainard, I start hearing a knock from the engine. I lift off the throttle, and the noise quit. Header leak? Nah, too loud, too metallic. Oil pressure? Gauge is reading 30 at 1500 RPM, that's good. Get on the throttle and more thrashing noise. Off, it gets quiet. On, thrashing again.

Uh, oh. This sounds bad. It starts sounding worse and I'm really worried. Traffic is backed up (as usual) off the exit. I wanted to shut the thing off as quick as I could.

I make a judgement call and pass my exit, as I didn't want to get stuck in traffic. I roll past the bridge for Brainard and pull off on the right median. Something is f-ed up. Nothing is visibly wrong but there is an awful racket under the hood. I check the oil, and while it's low, it still registers on the stick. I finally surrender, and call my father to come pick me up. I'm soooo close to home, less than 2 miles.

I dialed Fade's towing, but hung up before they answered. "I have a truck, I'm close to home. Why pay someone else? Isn't this why I bought a truck?"

I call Dave Speece and see if he could give me a hand. He suggests waiting until well after rush hour to go rescue the car. I go to his house and he finishes some vinyl siding work while he still has daylight. We finally get back to my car around 8pm.

We tie the tow straps around the rear frame of the truck and the sway bar on the Chevelle. We finally get going and head towards the Mayfield Rd. exit, heading north up 271. We exit and re-enter 271 heading south back towards Brainard. We didn't want to deal with a million traffic lights and Mayfield Rd.

The tow home was fairly uneventful -- until we get to my street. We're heading down the street when we see it blocked off by a utility crew. Great -- 1 block, literally, from my house, the road is blocked and we can't turn around. We explain to the guys our dilemma and they moved their tractor (fixing a gas leak) while one of the crew says his 12.0-second '65 Chevelle was at home with a broken motor and wanted to know if mine was for sale.

We finally get my car back into the garage and I ask Dave if he wants to hear the racket. I already had it in my head that I was gonna have to pull the motor and that my season was over. So, I start it and he cringes at the sound, but says "I don't think it's a heavy enough knock to be the bottom end. Sounds like the passenger side. Yank the valve cover."

I pull it off and everything looks fine. Hmmm.. We pull the driver's side cover off, and a rocker arm falls out! I was never so happy to see something broken in my life, now guessing that maybe it wasn't the bottom end after all. The rocker stud for #7 exhaust broke. We pulled the rocker off #7 intake and un-plugged the #7 injector. We started it up and it sounded just fine, minus 1 cylinder. Woo hoo! (Dave kept a little pressue with his hands on the exposed pushrods to keep the lifters from flying out of their bores)

Fortunately, I have screw-in studs. I'll replace the broken stud before Sunday and still plan on being at the track.

-Dave

[MostMint]

Sounds like you need beefier rocker studs.

[TireSmoker]