280z78

Hello, bought this 78 280z couple months ago. Replaced fuel pump, all filters, spark plugs. Cleaned injectors. The car started up and would run fine and rev nice. There where two problems. First, when revved hard and then the gas was let go the car would die. Second problem was white smoke out of tail pipe. Now it was fog machine smoke it was not really big deal but I new that meant a blown head gasket. So today I took intake and exhaust manifold and the value cover off the motor. First problem I ran into is one of the things (forgot what there called) that gets push down by the crank shaft and opens valves was completely off laying inside the valve cover. Now the car did have a slight ticking. I could have knocked it off when taking off valve cover but it shouldn't fall off even with a little force. The nut that pushes the one end so that u can control when it touchs crank was completely loose. I put the piece back on then tightened nut. Not sure exactly when that thing should touch the crank but I guess that's another issue. So I finally take off head and what I see is not good. The cylinder where the valve opener thing was missing had oil in it. Also the valves on the head where all crumbed up on some cylinders. The head gasket looks like crap probly original. Next step to to replace all gaskets then reassemble but I wanted to get second opinion on it. Could the missing valve pusher thing cause the suddebg diying after revving. Also would the oil in combustion chamber cause white smoke? Thanks

NismoPick

I'm assuming you are talking about the rocker that the CAMSHAFT (not crankshaft) hits to open the valve? I've seen that before... usually caused by someone incorrectly adjusting the rocker to cam clearance. It pops off if it's misadjusted, or the spring was not put back on correctly.

Anyway, clean it all up and send to a trusted machine shop to have everything checked. If the head gasket was blown, the head must be checked anyway.