I just bought a 280ZX that's been sitting for years. It's my first ohc engine and I'm not real familiar with their idiosyncrasies. I got the car for next to nothing given its condition.
OK - changed the gas and out in a battery and got it to start. Shut it down right away because of an unholy racket coming from under the valve cover. Five of the valve rocker guides were lying in the bottom along with one half off a valve keeper. Another guide was rotated 90° with the rocker arm still sitting on top. I'm really surprised it even started.
Any ideas on how this could happen? I'm thinking maybe the valve lash was way out of adjustment and somebody revved it enough to really float the valves???
What damage should I look for? I didn't find any scarring on the cam lobes and, rotating the engine by hand, none of the valve stems seem obviously bent

 

Welcome to ZDriver!

Yeah... common mishap resulting from improper valve adjustment. Check for scraped up cam lobes. Otherwise just get another set of rockers, lash pads, and retainer springs.

 

Thanks for the welcome-and the feedback.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm looking at the FSM and can't see anything identified as a 'lash pad'. Is that the same as the rocker arm guide? The little pad with ears that sits on top of the valve springs? I've seen that term in several posts here, but am not sure what part it's referring to on the breakdown that I'm looking at on pg EM6 in the FSM.

 

Yeah, lash pad is the more common term of the rocker guide.

 

Thanks. I'd seen it in a bunch of threads, but like I said, OHC engines are new to me, so I was getting my terminology from the manual.