possible cause of my engine's death

[UDLOSE98]

I was looking at the heads today when I noticed something i hadnt seen before, one of my valve springs was totally cheweed up on top, the vavle itself had worn away on top. The roller tip of my pro mags was missing a large chunk. and on top of it all the valve seal was up by the lock. these are abbott heads that have been in for less than 3K miles. Sounds like a major problem.

[Tom Rs]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

sounds like a faulty product

[blown00]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

and the pics..........

[WickEdSix9838]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

The rocker arm broke and that caused the problems. The springs and retainers aren't just gonna chew themselves up when everything is correct. Look on the rocker arm pedestals, its apparent the rocker arms have been rubbing the heads. I have a set of ZZP's rockers here in the shop and the way they put the rockers together, there is no way they're not in a bind. And when things are in a bind, they break.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

you think I should talk to ZZP/Comp Cams about replacing everything?

[FunkZ]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

Once WickedSix pointed out the wear marks on the intake/exhaust rocker pedastals of that last cylinder it does look like a faulty design of the rockers. Wonder why those did it but the one immediately to the right in that picture did not? Is there supposed to be a spacer on those or something? Or were these rockers not designed for this head?

<edit> Nevermind, I see in the second pic it looks like all of the pedastals are worn from the rockers rubbing. Judging by how the divets are aligned, the rocker had turned and was not even contacting directly on the top, but was hitting the side of the retainer with the edge of the rocker. So were these the correct rockers for the head?

[WickEdSix9838]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

you think I should talk to ZZP/Comp Cams about replacing everything?

I don't think its Comp's fault. I think ZZP does their own modifications to the rocker arms to make them work on the 3.8. The set of 1.7 Pro Mag's I have here in the shop are put together crooked to where you can't get a bolt in them with out it being bound up.

[blown00]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

we didn't like the idea of there being no pedastal or anything at all. but thats how they came and that's how we were told to put them on.

i didnt know zzp mod'd them to fit the 3.8's.

I guess it's time for a call to zzp.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

on the phone with them right now.

[WickEdSix9838]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

There should have been some pedestals with them. The ones I've got here have them.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

I recieved NO pedestals and even called to confirm they do not use them, they said NO! man i am getting pissed about this.

It looks like they will replace the rocker, BUT NOT! the valve spring, locks, retainer or valve iteself, which is bull ****.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

Yeah I think you should have reused the factory pedastal...

[WickEdSix9838]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

Yeah I think you should have reused the factory pedastal...

The Pro Mag's won't fit the factory pedestal. They're supposed to come with some custom pedestals from ZZP.

[blown00]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

The Pro Mag's won't fit the factory pedestal. They're supposed to come with some custom pedestals from ZZP.

well i posted it on my forum(clubgp) since everyone deals with zzp. we'll see what others say. not sure how many people have the pro mag's though. Maybe zooomer will chime in since he's back from sema

http://www.clubgp.com/newforum/tm.as...mode=1&smode=1



^^ definitely look at that. good replies very quick.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Re: possible cause of my engine's death

Wow, I hadn't seen those before.
Hmmm...
Well, bottom line is ZZP is covering up for not including instructions for the kit.

I have had NO good experience with them so far.
I ordered a gasket set and got the wrong one.
I also got the wrong crank bolt, which they insisted was the only crank bolt made for the 3.8 ever. Zooomer even said that I would be called an idiot if I posted about it. Turns out he was right, that was the proper crank bolt.... FOR THE L67, just like the L67 gasket set he sent me, including the charger gasket.
It was 2X too long (maybe it would fit the pre 97 NA motors, I dunno) but it would not even thread into the crank enough. So I said f*ck it. I will NEVER buy anything from them again.