Thread: Broken studs/Push Rod--> From bad Gas?

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I would say the same, except I know for a fact I never revved the engine high enough to float valves over that 1500 mile trip. Never got on it the whole weekend. I was running fine for 135 miles after the dying problem, at about 2500 rpm, when the vapor started coming out the back, and the pinging and engine rattling started.

I agree on checking for bent valves. Of course, I can't check compression until I put the valve train back together. I'm fighting with myself over whether to just pull the heads and take them up to be checked.

On one side of the coin, I could possibly use a magnet to pull the broken lifter up and out, and not even pull the manifold; put two new studs in; put the valve train back together and check comp, and see how it runs. I suspect that if there are any small pieces of metal from the broken push rod, they are already down in the pan.

But, I feel the smart thing to do is pull the top off and clean out the valley at a minimum, and if it's that far down, maybe go ahead and pull the head and have it checked.

Not sure which route I'll take yet.

But, I am really not sure what to think about what happened.

By the way, I wasn't thinking that running low on gas did it. I was thinking that running low in the tank that had WATER in it, and causing the engine to detonate due to low octane (water with gas mixture) caused the original problem. I am certain that the breakage of the studs (at least one of them anyway) happened close to home, as I heard it, and felt it, and that was when it really started missing pretty bad. I'm surprised it still ran, with only 1 cylindar on the driver side working at all.