I had to get a remanufactured head for my 95 jeep Cherokee xj 4.0 inline six. Started putting everything back together and went to put the rocker arms back on and it seems like the bridges are bent/twisted. The push rods set in fine but the rocker arms aren't sitting on the end of the valve, one side will but the other side seems off a 1/4-1/2 inch. The bridges are sort of ... caddywompus. I will attach a photo, I'm just wondering if maybe somehow they got switched up, which i doubt i had set them with their respective pushrods. If I need to get new ones that's no issue I just don't understand how it happened or if they're supposed to be like that or what.


currently I'm just putting them back on and tightening them down and just sort of twisting and bending them back until they sit on the end of the valves and gonna turn the motor over by hand and just see what that does. When I took them out the rocker arm assemblies were tight up front and got looser towards the back of the engine.

 

Not supposed to like that. Were the straight when you took them off? Straight as in all pushrods in the rocker arms and the rockers sitting properly over the valve stems.

What was wrong with the head that caused you to replace it?

 

I can't really remember if they were straight coming off or not, been awhile since I had taken it apart. They all seem to be twisted in the same way. For now I just torqued them down and seated the rocker arms on the end of the valves by just twisting the rocker arms. Turned the engine over by hand and everything seemed to move just fine.
My old head had cracked in the valve stem guides, around cylinder 3, I checked for warpage along the deck but didn't really see anything. Was going to have the guides reamed and redone but it was internal across 3 guides and I didn't want to risk any future damage. Was supposed to just be a bad head gasket but that was not the case at all.

 

By chance did you remove the bolts with an impact gun? They seem to be twisted in that direction.

Just make sure you prime your oil pump before cranking it over. I'd leave the VC off, pull the fuel pump relay and give it a few cranks to make sure everything stays seated and aligned.

 

Didn't use any power tools, only thing I can think of is that maybe I or my helper didn't alternate between intake and exhaust when removing them.

And thanks for the tip! I will definitely do that, no use putting the valve cover completely back on if I might just have to take it off again.