My Valve Rocker Arm... Fell Off

Uhhhh?
Was this a customer’s truck?
And if so, please tell me you made them award of the issue?
Even better, if it were “Repair denied by customer”

Otherwise, I’m kind of at a loss.
Even a sick kitten purrs, but that doesn’t mean it’s well.

I will say, Thanks for the update.

 

That was missing for some time and not from the start, How many miles looks like 35k maybe That rocker has been off for 15k WTF was people doing in there? or did the rocker shaft crack out?

 

Now I'm wondering if the Hydraulic Lifter is still in place too or did it pop out?????

 

TnShooter - No worries. I replaced the timing cover and re-did the gaskets for the oil pans and TCC... Gratis... I.E. for free. I also replaced his radiator, water pump, thermostat, and PCV. And yes, I let him know about the rocker arm, but he wasn't too worried seeing he had been driving it that way for the past year.

Jimmyh - Interestingly enough, no. In fact I did not see any hydraulic lifters. Instead, this engine used camshaft followers. They act like a fulcrum under the rear of the rocker arm. The front of the rocker arm sits on top of the valve stem cap, which sits on top of the valve. It's a 2009 so I thought that it would have the hydraulic lifters, but...

Dacapster - Everything else in the head was present and accounted for: nothing was broken. I think the previous mechanic forgot the valve stem cap on this particular valve, which may have caused the rocker arm to get real wobbly and fall out (at least that's all I can come up with.) Otherwise he just plain forgot about it. I live on Guam and there are a lot of very good, creative mechanics here... and a lot of hacks. It's hard to put a lot of miles on this island, but the heat and the stop and go traffic will definitely put some pain on an engine.

 

I can’t believe the engine was running fine with either an exhaust/intake valve not opening or closing.

 

That will but more stress on the other valve that will fail in time.

 

It was one the rear exhaust valve for the #2 cylinder. I am equally surprised that it seems to run as well as it does, as there are no codes, vibrations, nor anything that would suggest there's a problem.

I expect that it should fail, but I would not be surprised if it took a very long time to do so.

 

I just can’t get behind this. There is no way I would have worked on an engine if the owner wanted me to leave it in that condition. I would have sent him elsewhere.

 

The 2TR-FE Toyota engine has Hydraulic Lifters. ( Hydraulic Lash Adjusters they call them ).

 

It does in fact have Hydraulic Lash Adjusters on the 2.7Liter 2TR-FE Engine. If you take one of those out of the head it looks like this: