Troublesome valve

What started as a sputter turned out to be my nightmare...

Soo they finally got around to taking off the valve covers today, they were hoping to just see that the gaskets were bad, take the heads over get em machined and brought back. Nope..murphy's law is truly on my side.

#1 spot (ok i'm not mechanically fluent but you get the gist) the vavle was bent. not badly, mind you but just at the flat end so if you sat it up it looked like the leaning tower. They have no idea why, there isn't anything wrong mechanically with the piston (THANK GOD) but my mechanic said I will have to get the guide for the valve re-tooled (slightly) put a slightly thicker stem in and I should be good to go. (his words were..bring it to a machine shop..have em fix it and bring it back).

I had 2 really good mechanics looking at this engine with no idea why this exhaust valve was bent with no other damage done to any other part of the engie.

SOOo tomorrow I have to go find a shop that can machine both the heads and pray that the one isn't damaged. I soo can't wait to get this beast back on the road. I miss driving (and walkin to work in this cold isn't doing me any good). Have only had this 98 Astro for 6 mos and I think i've only been able to actually drive it for 3. (it stinks).

After all we've put into this astro I'll be practically driving a new car..just curious tho any idea or thoughts of what would/could bend this? They had a few ideas but nothing in the engine seemed to rock with their roll. If it was any kind of foriegn object they would have seen more damage in that section of the engine, but the only damage they seen was in the guide, the piston was pristine, no nicks or anything in that whole area. They took apart the intake vavle and it was as good as gold. Odd..

dunno..hopin after this i can leave my poor cold mechanic alone for a few months.

Thanks again for any imput!

Dee

'98 Astro AWD LS (what color was it again...its been so long since i seen it..i can't remember ROFL)