Took off valve cover and rocker arm is lying in the head, never good

[bleach8484]

Well i took off the valve cover on my SR today after we got the wiring harness out of the car.

And i peek in the head and the damn rocker arm is lying in the head, so that means someone revved the hell out of the motor before it was imported to america... My question is, do you just reinstall the rocker arm? or is it usally messed up? everything looked ok, valve springs were all intack.

I plan on building the motor from top to bottom anyway, but i was mighty discouraged to find this on a new purchase like this.

[SpeedRacer1]

If the rocker arm has no scoring or other bad marks it should be ok. You will have to take the camshaft off to install it, so you should also bleed the lash adjustor while you are replaing/reinstalling it. You might want to get rocker arm stoppers to prevent this problem from happening again. Also make sure the shims are still there.

[bleach8484]

I am gonna rebuild it with HKS valve springs and everything when i do the whole motor. So i wont need the RAS will i?

And i will be more knowledable when i get all my manuals to read up on the SR. Im not familiar with the shims etc... bieng that ive only worked with Hondas.

[Onizuka]

Your rocker arms will always be there, and rocker arm stoppers are always a good idea.

[SpeedRacer1]

You can get the manuals here for free. Just download them.http://www.zeroyon.com/TheSite/techservice.html

And there is no English S13 SR20DET FSM.

[bleach8484]

Thanks for the link...

so are you still saying its worth having the RAS even with upgraded valve springs?

[SpeedRacer1]

I can find them for like $60. You may not need them, but for the price its extra insurance.

[elballoonrat]

ive heard even withthe rocker arm stoppers it can still bust off, pauls did this a while ago. whats the dealy-o, does the sr20 have a full cam girdle or one available.

[180fan]

the RAS should keep them from flying off. I know Tomei uses them in all their engines. If your arm flew off, check to make sure you've still got the guide and the shim. They're little circular discs that sit on under the arms. one is flat and the other has a deep groove in it for the arm. the arm sits under the cam. pull the cam to get access to it. you'll have to poke around for the little metal discs though, there are two per arm.

[bleach8484]

Yea i saw a break down of the head in one of those FSM's i downloaded. Im gonna get down in there once i take the motor out and get it on a stand, i dont like trying to screw with it while its in the car.

[Movingviolation240]

Mine broke with the RAS, I've seen them break with springs and retainers..... basically they will break if you rev to high. That being said I'm still making plenty of power and they are all fine (hell Ken is at 550rwhp with his) as long as you don't over-rev your safe. It's when you miss a shift that they break in half (like mine).

BTW If you want you can get a new one at Nissan for about $36 each (the SE-R ones work)

Paul

[bleach8484]

Well thats nice to know they are available, i dont see it bieng broke, simply just out of place. But we will see