As a matter of interest to all my engine has a broken exhaust valve rocker shaft, I do not think I have ever seen this before and now I know why the engine has a major blow out.

I looked at the shaft thinking it may be a broken valve spring and noticed the bolt holding down the shaft at No. 4 had lifted and the shaft has snapped, so its off the the auto wreckers for a replacement, I have renewed all the electrics so it has a good spark and had it running on two cylinders before investigating further.

Trusting this is useful information and I did hear a ticking but I assumed it was a worn lifter and I did not investigate further, so a tick tick may require a check and re-torque of the rocker shaft bolts

Thanks to the owner of the site for identifying the Hyundai Excel LS as Mitshubishi powered, that has saved me heaps of time and effort as the Hyundai I have is not the most popular of models, I was able to get the part from a Mitsi and paid $8 for the shaft, which is really neat , we have a wrecker called pick-a-part where you go in with your own tools and pull the part you want yourself (IMG:style_emoticons/default/whistling.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/whistling.gif)

That's totally awesome. You are my hero. I love junkyards.

Strangely, I have just experienced a broken INTAKE rocker shaft no less than 3 days after you posted this. (And it's something I had never seen before either.) After exhaustive searching on the net I have yet to find a new "OEM" replacement for the shaft. I had started thinking I would source the shaft from a junker too only to realize that the pickings for an Excel are quite slim here in South Dakota. So, to the Admin helped you out with another source- it would be helpful for everyone to know which cars we can source parts from. Sanjeet, could either youself or the Admin give us some cars to check out?

Also, Sanjeet I am worried that because the shaft broke there may be some valve / other damage. Have you experienced further problems due directly to the broken shaft?

I have started a thread with the "sourcing from other cars" thought in mind. The Link is here.

This post has been edited by milk8man: Sep 30 2009, 06:22 PM

ROCKER ARM shafts that break in half are common in the older excels. especially the one in the REAR (when faces the front valve cover). The hyundai dealer and auto parts store carry an aftermarket . It has to be torqued to about 19 foot pounds (the bolts that hold it on).
I had it happen to my Excel and it was only running on 2 cylinders. It's fairly easy to replace..sounds like you already did that..I also adjusted my valves after replacement.

No further problems but keep an eye out for junk Mitshubishi (the one I found is identical) as for the valves they will be OK as the broken shaft will prevent them from working and you should have no problem with piston clash. its good to know this stuff and the first time its ever happened to me