Thread: Lost shims!

I popped a rocker arm Saturday night. I have since replaced the shims from my blowed up roller rocker. BUT, I cannot find the 2 shims that were on the car to begin with. I removed the lower oil pan with no luck. Removed the tray inside that, still wasn't there. I then dropped the upper oil pan (big cast piece) and it wasn't in there! We have checked the head a thousand times, run a magnet all over the bottom end, in the timing chain area. I even pulled off the intake piping to check inside the TB just in case it got sucked in there through the oil return line from the VC. I cannot find these 2 shims ANYWHERE!

After I popped the rocker arm I had my dad meet me, luckily I was at the exit I use when I go home. He took off the VC and found the rocker but the shims were missing. We checked right then with a magnet and there were not in the head. We then removed the spark plug wire for that cylinder and I limped the car home (about 3-5 miles from the exit). I am considering rotating the crank by hand to see if somehow the shims are sitting on top of something and they might fall out. I don't see how they are already not to the bottom of the engine. But I will give this a shot.

Any other advice from anyone? I am at a loss of what else to do to find these 2 shims. I even strained the oil I drained from the car.

Jensen did the same thing you did.

Eventually he pulled the head (it was trashed with bent valves) and he found the shim in a crevice of the head. There's some deep pockets in there!

yeah man look harder. I looked athousand times took both pans off and nuthing. I ended up finding it in the right corner of the head in a deep pocket that you cant really see AFTER I PULLED THE HEAD OFF lol

Oh dear. That is not what I wanted to hear. I'm already missing work today because of this. This is the only car I have to get around in. Do you think rotating by hand could get the shim loose and it fall out to the bottom?

Where in the head did he find his?

yes it can. Just please be carefull. If you feel the chain binding dont rotate it anymore by hand. I had a bolt stuck in between the chain that i didnt see and it ended up snapping the chain and i had to pull the whole motor out just to replace the chain. it was wack man.

Alright, after I tighten the cams back down I will try rotating by hand. Wish me luck!

I had to buy a torque wrench that can torque low enough for the cam towers. I'm just now getting to torquing the sprockets, this is proving to be a task because I don't have a big enough wrench for the exhaust cam. I have the 1" for the intake cam, but of course my luck the exhaust is bigger....

^Would one of these help in those deep pockets?

i had that. we looked all over the place. we figure it got ate up

Well my mom found a shim in one of those pockets you guys mentioned. The magnet you linked would be hard to use because of they way the pockets are shaped/located. But it might help.

I have hand cranked the motor with no luck of having the other shim fall out. I'm going to keep trying my luck with the deep pockets on the right side of the head. At least for now.