Thread: Motor was over revved and sounds like a WRX now

Hey forum members, I'm pissed.
Sunday evening, some "diesel technician" liked my car and wanted to see it fire up. Without saying anything or asking permission, he reached for the throttle body and revved it so high that something is seriously wrong now. Car was parked with no load btw.

I managed to drive the car home, still with good oil pressure and A/F ratios, but all power is gone and it sounds like a WRX now. It still idles fine, but the car shakes like crazy.

I'm thinking something in the valvetrain broke or bent or the timing chain skipped a tooth. What do you guys think?

Thanks for any input!

What motor do you have? GTIR's are known for the shim jumping between the rocker and the valve springs. I would pull the VC and check to see if any rocker arms are to the side. If so RR and go Again.

Pull of vc, check for rocker arms placement.

Drive back and kick the a s shole technician in the as s.

exactly.

Nope nuts. Also if there is any damage inform him he gets to pay.

Hmm, I might have a similar problem. Stock SR20DE with rev limit @ 8k, same symptoms, without the shaking...

You should go back and slap him silly and tell him he is paying for any damage, which includes parts and labour. Get a witness if you got one. Sounds like this could get expensive.

Everyone knows you don't touch another man's car without permission!!

In the future, don't leave! Driving probably caused more damage.

You now get to play my favorite game.... find the missing shims. sound like rocker arms were kicked off and shims went flying. If the valve train was stock you may have zero damage but will have to find your missing shims. They like to sit in the oil pan and the upper oil baffle. In the worse case a rocker arm got crushed and the cam lobe will be scored. Also you should not drive the car when this happens because you can further damage the valve train.

yeah, you threw a rocker arm dude. Hopefully the rocker arm is still in one piece and didnt get lodged between the head and cam lobe and shatter. Id say about 60% of the time they stay in one piece. Pop the valve cover. Verify the popped rocker arm, find the shims, remove the cam or if its on cylinder 3 or 4 you can loosen the cam cap bolts after putting the motor to TDC and the cam will lift up enough to put the shims and rocker back under the cam lobe into place. Then tighten down the cam cap bolts and torque to spec. Simple enough. More than likely you didnt damage any of your valves or bend anything. If the rocker is shattered you will need a new one and need to clean up the mess in the head. Make sure to get out all the metal pieces that you can with a magnet