(UPDATE) 4000 miles and three broken drivers side intake rockers

[CrazyRED]

Just bought a '14 1LE about a month or so ago with 4000 miles on the clock. I drove the car for about 100 miles to drain the gas that was in the car to make room for fresh gas so it could go to the shop and have a cam, head work, and intake work done with all new internals.

Well, the shop pulled the heads yesterday and this is what they found.

I bought the car from a member of this forum and had it shipped here from Pennsylvania. I bought it with the understanding that it was bone stock and no modifications and showed up in that condition. The vehicle looks like it only has 4000 miles on it, but the engine and transmission look like they have 50,000+. The intake was filled with oil and the transmission blow off valve was leaking trans fluid, and the #3 cylinder is burning a ton of oil

So now the engine is getting pulled and cleaned, obviously the numbers will be checked to make sure they match.

I know these stock rockers have been a major issue on the engines, but has anybody ever seen or heard of them failing at 4000 miles?

[Ashen 6.2]

Just a few weeks ago I found two broken intake rockers on mine while doing a cam swap. Mine were also on the drivers side.

It had just over 20k miles and Only had typical bolt ons (headers, CAI, 3.91's and a tune).

From what I have read and been told by many is that the stock rockers are the way to go. I had planed on going that route until I found the broken ones.

I decided to upgrade and went with the C.H.E trunnion kit. Really happy with that kit.

[Avenging Orange]

You buy sight unseen? I sure hope not.

[wasthatacop?]

Damn, that's shocking. We're you expect ting a mechanical problem as you were opening her up? We're you hearing rattling or anything? 4,000 miles is so low.

[Moto-Mojo]

I've got 5500 on a stock 2015. Is this something I can expect? Come clean boys, is this from abuse?

[Soybeanrice]

Makes me wonder how the engine would've felt/sounded before the tear down. There are tons of us running stock rockers for many miles... I wouldn't worry about a stock setup failing plus you still have your warranty.

[CamaroFred]

4,000 miles a 1/4 mile at a time?

[riozlander]

Originally Posted by Soybeanrice

Makes me wonder how the engine would've felt/sounded before the tear down. There are tons of us running stock rockers for many miles... I wouldn't worry about a stock setup failing plus you still have your warranty.

I don't think that the warranty would cover this given what the found when they opened it up? By the sounds of it the cars motor got abused pretty good. GM kinda has a record of saying no when signs of abuse come up.

My buddy had a cobalt ls that went in for the same repair 7 times on the transmission and they refused to work on it saying he abused the heck out of the car. He took them to court after a independent mechanic had to fix it and showed it was faulty poor quality parts were used. He went and got the cobalt SS with his money

[bkevind]

Wow that really sucks.

Did you notice anything during the 100 miles you drove it prior to the disassembly?

Are the stock pieces that bad or was this abused? If abused, what constitutes abuse to cause this premature failure? I know it seems obvious but I'd like to get an idea of what it really takes. I'm pretty hard cars in general, though I don't drag race.

I might have to up the timetable for putting in a cam and upgrading the rockers etc.

[frankwjr]

Based on what you stated seller prob had a cam in it and put the stock back in before sale...almost all rocker failure stories are a result of this....not sayin stock don't fail but it's kinda rare....regardless that is why I went with bronze bushings on a stock motor...insurance policy....good luck...and give the seller a piece of your mind... caveat emptor only goes so far....C-5 peeps should be watching each others backs...peace out....

[christianchevell]

I would be suspicious of a cam job having been done before, or having not had the rockers at the proper preload, and I would inspect all the pushrods to see how straight they are as this car may have had a bad over rev from mechanical down shifting at high rev ....... And would replace them all with bushing rockers and wonder if they starved the top end.. or what as it is not normal at all....if this was defective tis the worst case ever seen on the lowest miles..... Many people do not consider that tracking a car...it takes a real toll on the OIL life, the type of oil being low ZDDP does not help and the brakes especially if circle tracking with stabillitrac on it will make the brake wear quickly also...check the pads......and you know to get a catch can....

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by frankwjr

Based on what you stated seller prob had a cam in it and put the stock back in before sale...almost all rocker failure stories are a result of this....not sayin stock don't fail but it's kinda rare....regardless that is why I went with bronze bushings on a stock motor...insurance policy....good luck...and give the seller a piece of your mind... caveat emptor only goes so far....C-5 peeps should be watching each others backs...peace out....

The stock cam has a ton of wear on it, it doesn't look like a 4000 mile cam. We haven't found anything yet to suggest anything was ever more than stock

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by christianchevell

I would be suspicious of a cam job having been done before, or having not had the rockers at the proper preload, and I would inspect all the pushrods to see how straight they are as this car may have had a bad over rev from mechanical down shifting at high rev ....... And would replace them all with bushing rockers and wonder if they starved the top end.. or what as it is not normal at all....if this was defective tis the worst case ever seen on the lowest miles..... Many people do not consider that tracking a car...it takes a real toll on the OIL life, the type of oil being low ZDDP does not help and the brakes especially if circle tracking with stabillitrac on it will make the brake wear quickly also...check the pads......and you know to get a catch can....

Everything in the top end was getting replaced anyway, but no, the push rods are in good shape. There's no sign of any damage other than the rockers at this point.

[CrazyRED]

Originally Posted by bkevind

Wow that really sucks.

Did you notice anything during the 100 miles you drove it prior to the disassembly?

Are the stock pieces that bad or was this abused? If abused, what constitutes abuse to cause this premature failure? I know it seems obvious but I'd like to get an idea of what it really takes. I'm pretty hard cars in general, though I don't drag race.

I might have to up the timetable for putting in a cam and upgrading the rockers etc.

I'm very hard on cars, I run them hard. In this cars case I had not run it hard yet. Everything on it sounded great, in fact I even commented on how much quieter this engine was than my last ss