That's intake valve #2 on cylinder #1 btw.

Any pictures of the VALVE side, kinda looks like one is higher than the other, but it could just be an optical illusion.

Looks like the valve I circled is bent.

Edit: Marty posted as I was drawing...

Agreed!
You didn't hurt my feelings Zach.

It seems you have a bent valve that you can see in the pic. Probably the noise is by valve(s) hitting piston(s). (could be by bad lifters, too)

Oh sorry, @1990TSIAWDTALON and @delta448 already posted while I was writing.

Time for a compression check.
I would go out on a limb and say that lifter wasn't bled all the way prior to instll. It happens. It's one of those things you have to be aware of when assembling.
The process would be bleed all the lifters and install after bled one by one.

Compression check and let us know.

Alright, I will do a compression check. I did recently do a leak down test @80psi and all cylinders were within 5% with the lowest one being cylinder 3, cylinder 1 was one of the highest. No clue how it could be sealing that well if it had a bent valve. Nonetheless I will do a compression check and see.

It doesn't look bent to me, more like an optical illusion.

Did you do the leakdown test after you noticed the sound?

It's possible that valve is just shorter than the other one. The lifter would have to sit higher because of that, in order to keep the rocker from kicking out. In which case, you may need to shim that particular lifter a little to make sure it doesn't over extend. You'd also need to turn it over by hand with the rocker in place to make sure the reduced height doesn't cause coil bind in the valve spring.

Is there any abnormal wear or damage to the cam lobe for that valve?

I would like to add, when all this started I had just got the engine installed and started and everything was fine. Letting it warm up and checking for leaks. I shut it down to let it heat soak then when I restarted it it ran fine then suddenly after a few minutes started to run like crap, just thought I'd add that since it might be part of the

Here are the results from the compression test.
4 165psi
3 165psi
2 175psi
1 0psi
In response to another question from above the camshaft lobe and rocker for the valve in question appear to be in perfect shape, just as shiny as any other in the cylinder head. I guess I'm pulling this head off to investigate further. Do you guys think I would be able to get away with replacing a single valve and a valve guide? If it turns out that the valve guide is good would I just be able to lap a new valve in by hand? Thanks for all your guys's help so far. I have had the worst luck recently and just want her back on the road but she's fighting me every step of the way.

You'll need to inspect the damage to determine what to do next. The valve guide is probably alright, but you won't know until you inspect it. There's a fair chance the piston will need some love too. At least to remove any sharp edged valve impact gouges if the piston is indeed still salvageable.

dudeX said:

I would like to add, when all this started I had just got the engine installed and started and everything was fine. Letting it warm up and checking for leaks. I shut it down to let it heat soak then when I restarted it it ran fine then suddenly after a few minutes started to run like crap, just thought I'd add that since it might be part of the

Here are the results from the compression test.
4 165psi
3 165psi
2 175psi
1 0psi
In response to another question from above the camshaft lobe and rocker for the valve in question appear to be in perfect shape, just as shiny as any other in the cylinder head. I guess I'm pulling this head off to investigate further. Do you guys think I would be able to get away with replacing a single valve and a valve guide? If it turns out that the valve guide is good would I just be able to lap a new valve in by hand? Thanks for all your guys's help so far. I have had the worst luck recently and just want her back on the road but she's fighting me every step of the way.

Click to expand...

Before you take it apart did you at least bleed those lifters and run a leak down? Valves may be hung open. Bent? Who knows. Test is easy and qyick.

dudeX said:

In response to another question from above the camshaft lobe and rocker for the valve in question appear to be in perfect shape, just as shiny as any other in the cylinder head. I guess I'm pulling this head off to investigate further.

Click to expand...

The lobe looked fine to me in the pictures you had. I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

I'll have some time this weekend and next week to dig into this more. I'll be keeping this thread updated as things occur. Thanks everyone for your input so far. If a bent valve is indeed the case I am curious what could've caused it. I had a perfectly running engine that was pulled about a month ago for a freeze plug that I couldn't get to. If it is lifters not being bled does that mean that any DSM that hasn't been started in a few weeks needs to have lifters bled to avoid bent valves? Sounds a bit too extreme to me but nonetheless I want to know the cause. Hopefully i can find it so that I can avoid it in the future as well as anyone who stumbles onto this thread.

dudeX said:

I'll have some time this weekend and next week to dig into this more. I'll be keeping this thread updated as things occur. Thanks everyone for your input so far. If a bent valve is indeed the case I am curious what could've caused it. I had a perfectly running engine that was pulled about a month ago for a freeze plug that I couldn't get to. If it is lifters not being bled does that mean that any DSM that hasn't been started in a few weeks needs to have lifters bled to avoid bent valves? Sounds a bit too extreme to me but nonetheless I want to know the cause. Hopefully i can find it so that I can avoid it in the future as well as anyone who stumbles onto this thread.

Click to expand...

I was under the impression you just had stuff rebuilt. You didnt have the head off? The only thing I see that you did was remove a lifter. You did bleed the new lifter before install? No you do not have to do anything if the engine has just been sitting. Run us down on what all you did. The very first line of the original post had me thinking this was a full rebuild.

Alright, sorry for not being clear to begin with. Here's the story as best as I can recall.

First off yes I did make sure to bleed the new lifter I installed. The old one was full and not squishy by hand and the new one starting out bled became hard after running for less than a few minutes. Going back in time, the engine was refreshed over a year ago after suffering an overheat condition due to a blown heater hose. Head had a valve job and decked. At this time I had some bc cams and springs installed to stock height per the specs by a shop. Been running good ever since, ecmlink says roughly 370hp and I'm having a good time cruising around. A week or so prior to pulling the motor leading to this situation there was a slight antifreeze smell and it turned out to be a core plug under the intake manifold that was weeping so I pulled the motor for ease of access, I had smelled whiffs of coolant before but recently I was losing overflow tanks worth of coolant every few days or so. The motor sat for a few weeks, near a month until I had time to finish everything up and reinstall a new plug with good sealant. Only extra thing I did was remove the timing belt so I could prime the oil pump before starting it since it sat for a while. I was expecting to just drop it in and go on with life. During the first start and while the car was warming up and I was burping the coolant system and the car suddenly stumbled and acted like it basically lost an injector (like when you use ecmlink to disable them). I shut the car down within the next minute while I looked around for a cause but at no point did I hear any irregular noises or metal impact sounds. The electrical arcing sound im pretty has always been there since before and is an issue I haven't tracked down yet but I did notice that it seemed to be inline with the cam rotation but I cant be sure on that or if it is a contributing factor or related in anyway. Anyways, not sure if there's anything useful in this little novel but there it is. Due to the compression test results I will be pulling the head at a minimum and hopefully be able to deduce a cause. Updates here as I work through this. Send me all your DSM prayers, I'm getting burnt out working on it and need a solid spell of good driving to save me from insanity haha.

Are you 100% sure it didnt jump time? Nothing you've described should cause a bent valve. There is an obvious issue in that cylinder but I'm still confused

0% is NEVER a good thing for sure.

pauleyman said:

Are you 100% sure it didnt jump time? Nothing you've described should cause a bent valve. There is an obvious issue in that cylinder but I'm still confused

Click to expand...

I will be working on it some tonight, pulling the head off. I will verify timing before I disassemble it. Actually, I usually read to set timing before disassembly and I'm not sure why. Wouldn't it be safer to have all the pistons even with each other down in the bores so the cams dont spin and hit valves? I'll update this thread with any findings.

I went through exactly what your explaining the arcing sound was a misfire for me because of wrong timing and bent my valves.

Can you explain more? That's the first I've ever heard tying those two things together. Was there a main cause? I've checked my timing again and it is still good. Did you bend multiple valves or just one like me?

I bent the intake and exhaust valve on cyl 1. The timing skipped and the lifters didn’t compress manually so I’m not sure what caused what first. I Just lapped the valves re timed the motor, and got the no tick lifters now she runs good

BoostedTurtle said:

I bent the intake and exhaust valve on cyl 1. The timing skipped and the lifters didn’t compress manually so I’m not sure what caused what first. I Just lapped the valves re timed the motor, and got the no tick lifters now she runs good

Click to expand...

You DID at least get 2 NEW valves, right? And then lapped them in with compound, if I get the reply correct.