I was removing the first of my cylinder heads last night.

Even with all the bolts removed, it was stuck pretty good to the block.

Anyway, I got it off and a lifter popped out from the block.

That got me thinking...

The last time it was started was Monday when I moved it into the garage and started draining fluids and dismantling the engine.

It is possible that there was still compression in the pistons and, when removing the head, the pressure released, a piston moved, the crankshaft and camshaft spun slightly, then out comes my tappet?

The other explanation is that my Rover's haunted.

Any takers?

 

I'm not sure about rover engines but most any others its a couple hours at the most

The only thing I could think of is if the other head is on with the rockers and push rods still together there might be enough spring tension to move the crank just a little bit...... unless you have antifreeze or oil in the cylender that caused it to "hydro lock"

 

Mystery solved.

I pulled the other side and something similar happened.

However, I noticed that as I was removing the pushrods some lifters came up a bit.

Apparently, a lifter similarly came up on the other side and my moving the cylinder head a bit caused it to topple over and into the oil gallery.

I just found the matter interesting and thought that Rovers were super tight engines.

 

as for the engines being super tight....uh....no.

 

A piston will only hold compression for a few seconds.

 

Damn, and I was going for "haunted" ... would explain a lot about mine.
You doing head gaskets, Dave?

 

Trying too.

Could have stopped at the lower intake, though. Half of the bolts were about hand tight.

$5 gets you $10 that's where my coolant was leaking from.

Since I was already that far and had the gasket kit on hand, I kept going.