So I had oil in my spark plugs, so we removed the rocker arm and replaced the lower seals. When the rocker arm was taken out one of the ends of the arm fell off, we set it back in place and continued reinstalling the rocker arm. We had trouble getting one last bolt in place so we left it a inch above the head. we reinstalled the valve cover several hours later and started up the car, smoke started coming out of the exhaust and there was a series of very loud clicking noises which would be the valves not being adjusted anymore. What could cause the smoke coming out of the exhaust? And where do I go from here, because I have tomorrow (sunday) to fix this problem before I have to go back to work on monday 40 miles away and im in a bit of a financial crisis at the moment with moving into a new apartment/etc. Any tips,advice?

**We removed the Exhaust Heat shield by the valve covers and doing so we unclipped the sensor. Just realized we hadnt clipped it back in place, could that have caused the smoke?

 

You loose some oil onto the engine and exhaust system when you do this job, so some oil smoke is to be expected as oil burns off outside of the exhaust system. However smoke from the exhaust indicates oil is being burned. If this persists, then oil is either bypassing the piston rings or leaking down and past the valve stem seals.

Leaving a bolt head 1" high is not acceptable. Was it cross-threaded? If so, it will need to be removed, threads chased, and hopefully correctly threaded. It sounds like the valve assembly was not correctly aligned to the head and bolt was misaligned. Go back and fix your work.

Check ericthecarguy's video on youtube to replace the lower valve train orings.

good luck

 

We've been working on it all morning, we now have a different problem. there is a sizeable gap (about a half inch) between the last valve and the end of the rocker arm. the end of the rocker arm popped off the first time we took it out so we popped it back into place, and now were left with this clearance of a half inch between the valve arm and the end of the rocker arm.. we've checked the holes that the piece pops into and its clear of gunk/buildup.

 

^ the gap in the rocker



^ overview with the gap

 

Not sure but looks like the intake valve rocker arms are too high. Shouldn't they be underneath exhaust rocker arm axis to contact the camshaft.

See "Spark Plug Well Oil Leak Fix, Honda Accord" on youtube. It directly addresses your issues.

good luck

 

The rocker arm isnt bolted into place which is why it looks like that, the piece to the right of the circle is the part that fell off the assembly, we pushed it back into place but we've been left with the gap. I've watched that video numerous times, it doesnt answer our issue. The main issue right now is A: the gap that was circled. and B: the bolts are having trouble lining up with the head.

 

I have heard that if you ever remove the bolts from the rocker arm assembly it will become misaligned and difficult to align. Could this have happened?

good luck