UPDATE!!!
So I hurt my back last week and was unable to work on this until tonight. I finally got the head off (WHAT A PAIN!!!) and one of the exhaust valves is stuck open. Here are some photos:







I am looking for some ideas on how this could happen with the vehicle not losing it's timing. You can see in the 3rd photo that the valve was hitting the top of the piston. Is this a problem? Need some of your expert thoughts and ideas. I broke a timing belt 10K miles ago and had some valves replaced at that time. Thanks!

 

Glad to hear you're back in business. Working on any car with a bad back isn't fun.

Good to hear that the leak down test sent you in the right direction and you didn't pull the head for nothing. At least you found the culprit.

As for just one valve being bent and no others, I would think that something failed with that valve itself. I would be looking into the valve keeper / retainer and see if that allowed the valve to drop down and make contact with the piston.

With the piston being marred like it is, I don't know if simply slapping it back together would be the best practice. I'm sure you would still get compression by replacing the valve and putting it all back together, but I'm almost certain that this would cause an issue with the way that cylinder fires in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness and it may indeed be noticeable at different RPM ranges.

 

UPDATE
I got the head back from the machine shop and they found that the exhaust valve broke right under where the collar lock goes. They said it is very common for these valves. I was surprised to hear that. They did not see any other problems and everything else looked perfect. I am just nervous putting it back together without truly know what caused the valve to break in the first place. #scaredtoputtheheadbackon LOL

 

I can see that happening over time given the way they are setup. When you see how simple the system is, you can't believe it works as well as it does. (By simple, I mean just looking at one valve at a time and understanding how it operates)

I wouldn't worry too much about putting it back together. Be sure the new valve seats properly to the head. If you wanted to go crazy, I suppose you could get a valve kit from FCP Euro and re-do them all while it's torn apart. It's not a bad idea, actually.

Just take your time and double check what you're doing as far as the timing system. You're on the right track and have made good progress thus far. It would be a shame for you to get it back together and smash up ALL the valves!

Keep us posted.

 

QUESTION...

I found this part lying on the head on the passenger side...no clue what it is or where it came from. About an inch x inch. Any ideas???

 

Something went wrong!!! Got the head back on and re-installed the timing belt (cams were locked with the cam tool). Adjusted the tension. Pre loaded the belt...re torqued the tensioner after releasing the pin. Adjusted both exhaust cams with the special tool. Torqued all 4 cam bolts to 100Nm. Put the bottom cover and crank pulley back on. Crank mark aligned with mark on timing cover. Removed the cam locking tools from each of the heads. Rotated the crank by hand at least 10 revolutions. Got the crank at TDC again. Put the drivers cam locking tool on perfect. Passenger side cam lock tool would not go on! The exhaust cam seems perfect but the intake cam looks to be off just enough to prevent the tool from going on. UGH!!! So, I think I need to loosen the cam bolts so as to remove the timing belt. I need to then tighten up the passenger intake gear so I can rotate the cam slightly for the cam tool to lock on. Lock it on and then loosen the cam bolt and re-install the timing belt. Any thoughts on how this happened or what I did wrong? Also, can I reuse the cam bolts or are they a one-time use?