Rocker bearing issue - and Artificial Intelligence

[Gelandestrasse]

So I thought I'd attend to a suddenly loud exhaust tappet (after a bit of 'rootytoot' down the A303 the other day). Imagine my surprise when a number of needle rollers fell out of the rocker cover on opening! Here we go, I thought.

I recovered all of them I could see and arranged them in groups of 5 to make easy counting:



I found the lower exhaust rocker bearing cage had a bit missing and about half the rollers had fallen out. I emptied them all out, even from the good bearing. I then got on the internet to see how many should there be. AI in Google said there were 31 in each bearing. I had 60 - so 2 were missing. Emptied the engine oil out....

I took the sump off and it was totally clean. Fair enough, so I got some grease out and re-packed the rocker bearings, to see if I could get 31 in each cage. Impossible. So AI can go and get f++ked for all I care! But at least I have all the bits in my hand and the bit of the cage that broke. Pictures, showing witness marks on the top/bottom rocker mounts and the broken cage:




Thing is, why did this happen?

And I also looked up the meaning of rootytoot and AI did not really correspond with my recollection; something about a taco came up! Rewriting history, I think!

 

[Gelandestrasse]

Ok, an update here. I've got the new bearings to put in and have counted the needle rollers in them. It comes to 31.... I also found a needle roller on the floor, so now I have 30 + 31 so one missing! Not in the sump, not in the push rod tube, not in the oil way just before the cam followers. I'll have to keep looking.

And I'll have to take back what I said about AI! But I don't really care about that one.

 

[The Other PaulG]

Good work, you will be way more relaxed when you know they have all been accounted for.