Broken valve spring in my Chevy should I worry?

[Jack B]

I just got my 2014 Chevy Silverado back from my dealer. Last Thursday it was running very poorly.
The valve spring broke and bent the push rods in one cylinder. Thank goodness it was still under warranty.
So should I worry about something else going in the engine or not?
It only has 38,000 miles on it and oil changes were always done at a GM dealer.
By the way the dealer washed my truck for me and no dirty finger prints, plus they give me 2020 truck to drive.

[sandy]

I've never heard of a broken valve spring on a stock street engine. I'd worry. 

[Patrick]

Chevy engines are somewhat prone to broken springs. Its not a real big problem but it does happen. Since GM is repairing it I see no need to worry much. The bent pushrod concerns me a bit as it may be that the valve contacted the piston causing the pushrod to bend which might result in a bent valve.

[Robert]

A bit unusual but as long as the repairs were made correctly its really not a problem.

I did a Google on it and it seems that its a fairly common problem on your truck. To me its not a deal breaker on keeping the truck.  

[CISE]

Wayyyyyyyyyy back in '82 I bought one of the then new style firebirds (brand new no miles) .... after about 6,000 miles I had to bring it in to dealer because of a knock in the engine.

Turns out a main bearing was not installed correctly. Dealer fixed it no problem.

But -- after that every 2-3000 miles it would have trouble shifting.

After 2 repairs I had brought to another dealer and they diagnosed the problem as an out of alignment output shaft. Turned out that when the 1st dealer pulled the motor for repairs they banged up the end of the output shaft of the transmission (4 speed manual) and it was chewing up throw out bearings.

Loved the car - but sold it right after it was repaired.

Later on found out that the car had to have both headlight motors replaced and a new shift kit and a transmission --- within 6 months of my sale.

Maybe it was just a lemon rather than crappy service ---- but ya never know

[Binkie]

It’s a beehive type spring which is under a lot of tension. It probably had a nick in it ( called an inclusion) that happened during manufacturing. I’m amazed that the spring didn’t lose its keepers and the valve didn’t drop causing a catastrophic failure. I wouldn’t be concerned once it was repaired.

[MarkT]

I didn't know they were still using pushrods so recently.  Thought all makers - except Harley - had gone to overhead cams, even dual cams, most with 4-valve heads for more efficiency.  They cost enough to pay for it anyway.

[F6Dave]

I didn't know they were still using pushrods so recently.  Thought all makers - except Harley - had gone to overhead cams, even dual cams, most with 4-valve heads for more efficiency.  They cost enough to pay for it anyway.

I believe all the current GM V8 engines are still pushrod, 2 valve per cylinder designs.  They get an amazing amount of power from such a dated layout.

Pushrod/OHV engines can make lots of power.  Back in the 1990s Roger Penske won Indy with a Mercedes pushrod V8.  He chose the design because at the time Indy rules allowed the design to run more turbo boost.

The most exotic American made V8 these days has to be the 32 valve, 4 cam 'Coyote V8' found in Ford's Trucks and the Mustang.  The GT350's normally aspirated flat plane crank version gets 526 HP from 5.2 liters.

[Patrick]

GM still uses pushrods, it keeps the engines narrow.  NASCAR still requires pushrods which in my opinion should eliminate Toyota since they don't make a pushrod production engine.

[F6Dave]

I liked NASCAR better when their race cars had more in common with street cars.

[Patrick]

I liked NASCAR better when their race cars had more in common with street cars.

Me too !  I'll include most others in there too, drag cars, street rods etc. I liked the diversity, they are all cookie cutters today.