A week ago I had a adjusting nut back off on the rocker arm assembly. It was the #2 exhaust. I went through and readjusted them to spec which is .015. I drove the car around and it ran fine with no oil pressure issues or radiator temp problems. I also ran a vacuum gauge check the gauge read fine. OK. fast foward a week later as I pull into work my car sounds horrible. So I got towed home. I pulled the valve cover off assuming that I had a nut back off and everything was tight. I then proceeded down to the side cover on the distributor side. I took that off and notice that the #2 exhaust push rod was not sitting on the lifter it was sitting off. NOT WHERE THATS SUPPOSED TO BE. So I proceed to loosen the upper rocker arm assembly I pulled all my pushrods and checked them and none are bent, So I replaced the #2 pushrod with another one. But haven't proceeded to do another adjustment. My question is what would cause this? Is my cam toast? If it is the cam, can I put in a new cam without pulling the motor? or should I just pull the motor and look at it having rebuilt? Thanks guys!
Put everything back together and adjust. Turn engine over and see if the #2 exhaust rocker moves as much as the rest. If it does most likely not cam issues. If your gas is old and smells bad you may have a sticky valve. Hell just hose that valve stem down with carb spray for GP,won't hurt a thing.
Like John mentioned, you might not have adjusted that one rocker correctly the first time the nut loosened.