Well at least you know you'll be 1/8"th faster. Unless you're running a large roller cam I'm not sure if a stud girdle is necessary. Maybe when you get her apart you can tell what caused it. Wonder if it hydrolicked(how do you spell that btw,lol) or a lifter froze up, or?? If you smacked a valve could it do that?? Good luck on the rebuild.

crazy 

are you saying that you have seen another bbc that looked somewhat like that?

So I purchased a new intake last week. When I went to put it on I pulled the valve covers off and found a broken Rocker Arm Stud, broken push rod, bent push rod and broken lifter. Needless to say i have been running all seven cylinders lately. LOL So now it is time to overhaul the engine. Hell it is only money right. If anyone has rocker arm stud girdles I am looking for a set. Till next time. 

Fix and go, why overhaul? So you snapped a stud, bfd...you can be on the water in an hour.

so...this is what i found (something similar, but not to the same extreme)



There was a loud knock on the valve cover only upon firing up the motor...only did it 2-3 times then stopped.

previous owner said its the forge pistons getting "piston slap" because the piston needs to warm up and expand into the cylinder.  ...said he had heard it before and never did anything about it and the engine ran great (and strong!) with no issues. 

to me it sounded like somethin goin on with the rocker...whatever....i used it as a vantage point to take a few hundred off the asking price.

there was no damage....pushrod was still straight....just reset the stud with some loctite and im on my way.