Its hard to say. If you know what your looking for you might see the tall tell signs of damage with nothing more than a mirror and a flash light. After looking at the motor, if you feel its safe to turn it over I'd do a compression test and or a leak down test which is better yet. These numbers should tell you if there is serious damage that will require you to pull the head.

If the piston and the valve hit causing the valve to bend, your gonna have to pull the head to get a better idea of what type of damage you got.

No matter what you need to change the retainers now and hopefully that is all. Pulling the cams is a very easy job to do and will allow you to investigate much easier. Once the valve cover is off its only a matter of minutes to pull the cams and rocker arm assembly.


Rocker arm install tip; Remove the cams and flip up all of the rocker arms on one side. Get yourself some small rod or all thread and wrap them in tap and place them in the cam journals then flip the rocker arms back down so that they rest on the rods while you set the assembly back into the head. This will make your life a little easier.