I took a picture of the rocker nut and counted the threads prior to reinstalling the valve cover and the one was different when I removed the valve cover. I hear a lot of good things about Crane and may have to switch. I will look at the camshaft this week to see if there is any noticeable damage but I am hoping not. It already appears that it will be a shorter than normal boating season and I don't want anymore set backs.

Glad to hear that you confirmed that, as opposed to "assuming"... still don't understand how the nuts could back off, since they're always under pressure and there's no reason they should rotate. I'm a sucker for a good mystery though!

I am as well, when its not my own mystery. I will be digging into it tomorrow evening and will try to get some pictures up for input. Smooth seas don't make skillful sailors is the phrase this week.

I've deal with this on many sbc's , poor rebuilds, or tons of miles, and also with people cheaping out on 'performance' rockers. The OEM sbc's used pinch nuts, and some aftermarket had used nylon locking nuts. fter a ton of time on and off, the pinch nuts would lose the tightness, and many of the aftermarket nylon lock nuts would still be loose. And yeh, they would back off. I gave up on why they would back off, but figured what parts caused them. LOL.

Josh,

I'm pretty sure you didn't hurt anything. Get the OEM nuts on there and let it ride. She'll be okay.

My buddy has an extra set of poly locks that were going to try this week.

Nothing like having bad nuts, other than maybe bad head,

Bad head can make it hard to get your nuts off...

If the arm starts a rockin', don't come knockin...

and if the arm starts knocking while rocking, you might have a head problem...