I've had an irritating small oil leak from the back of my intake for the past 6 months. A friend came over today to help me replace the intake gasket. I drove the car yesterday and noticed it didn't have the power it usually does, so I decided to check the plugs while we had the intake and valve covers off. I have 2 fouled plugs which just so happens to be #4 and #7 cylinders. That's the same ones that broke the rocker arm studs last summer.

While I have the intake off, should I go ahead and pull the heads and have them checked for a warped valve or whatever is causing those 2 cylinders to foul the plugs? Will I be able to get the heads off without taking the headers completely off? Is it likely that I damaged a piston when the rocker arms broke or do you think the problem is in the heads? 

Was it fouling the plugs before you pulled/installed the intake? If not, chances are the intake gasket slide down a bit while putting the intake back on. This would allow oil to be sucked up into the intake ports.

(Never mind...I just re-read the post. )
I would suggest a compression test first. Even with the intake off, you can still do a comp. test. Doubtful that you hurt the pistons. You may have damaged the valves, tho. They may have enough of a "bend" in the stems to be sticking, or wearing the guides enough to suck some oil down them. You might check to see if the valves on those two cylinders still have the seal on them. It's possible that when the rockers went bonkers, they mashed the seals into oblivion...

We took the heads off today and i'm taking them to Warren Racing Engines tomorrow. I really hope it's in the heads because I certainly don't want to pull the engine out.

Joel, I suggested we do a compression test but my buddy said that still wouldn't tell us if the problems was in the heads or the piston. This high hp stuff is fun but it dang sure ain't cheap.

i HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU THERE JIM. SEEMS LIKE I`M ALWAYS REACHIN` IN THE POCKET, AND i ONLY HAVE ABOUT 1000 MILES ON HER. GOOD LUCK I HOPE IT SOMETHING SIMPLE. I REMEMBER I BROKE A ROCKER STUD TOO SHORTLY AFTER THE ENGINE WAS INSTALLED.

[QUOTE=VETTERBOB]i HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU THERE JIM. SEEMS LIKE I`M ALWAYS REACHIN` IN THE POCKET, AND i ONLY HAVE ABOUT 1000 MILES ON HER. GOOD LUCK I HOPE IT SOMETHING SIMPLE. I REMEMBER I BROKE A ROCKER STUD TOO SHORTLY AFTER THE ENGINE WAS INSTALLED.[/QUOTE]


Did you have the 3/8 rocker studs or the 7/16? I had the 3/8 with 1.5 Harland Sharp roller rockers but changed to 7/16 with the 1.6 Harland Sharp rockers  after it broke the 2nd stud.  I thought I had the problem solved but I guess this damage was done when the 2 original  studs broke.  I have almost 2400 miles on the engine and if anything else happens to it, my original engine is going back in the car. 

comp/test will tell you if its heads or pistons if you know what to do. put a squirt of oil in bore and if comp comes up its pistons,if no change its the valves/head.

Got the call from the engine shop today. There is nothing wrong in the heads. We checked all the pistons real close and there's no indication that anything has hit a piston.

I think Joel might have diagnosed the problem when he said it's possible the intake gasket was not completely lined up and allowed oil to be sucked up into the intake ports.

Any suggestions as what to do next?

Fix it!!!

[QUOTE=Adams' Apple]Fix it!!![/QUOTE]

I need to know what to fix.

I went to pick my heads up today and decided to carry my old head and intake gaskets so the "experts" could inspect them. They seem to think that was my problem, atleast on one of the cylinders. I also had the valve stem seals replaced since the heads were already apart.  Everything else looked fine.

I was a little surprised at the cost of labor for checking the heads and replacing the stem seals. ($200.44) Head gaskets, header gaskets, intake gasket and valve cover gaskets another  $101.