Thread: Bent pushrod and broken valve spring?

I bought my 95 Pontiac Grand Prix SE 8 months ago. When I got it, it had a blown intake manifold gasket. Replace that. Now, two nights ago, I finally got to drive it since I bought it. I was coming home after driving 12 miles, went halfway over a bridge, and my car died completely except for the lights. Coasted into the gas station on the other side and thought "Maybe it's just because it was sitting for a while". Tried to crank it again but it sounded like it was not getting any gas. I thought "Can my timing belt go out that quick without any notice?". Then, I had my boyfriend crank it [after pumping it to death XD] got out and listened because it was knocking. It was coming from the top part of the engine. I got home yesterday after work and pulled the top front valve cover off, because it was the easiest to get to without taking the whole intake off. [My motor is a side mounted motor NOT FUN lol] I found that the valve first on the left was not on the spring it was turned off of it, and underneath that was a bent pushrod. I then looked at the others and noticed that 3 valves down, the spring was snapped. I pulled it apart and that pushrod was fine. I also found some small chunks of metal inside sitting at the bottom of the valve cover. I went to Advance today and figured maybe I can cheat the system a little until I get more money and just buy a new pushrod and spring. They said, just to be safe, I should pull the intake and the head to make sure there is not metal shavings inside there and that if there is, they will tear up my cylinders. I was talking to someone today and told them that, and they said that I could pour diesel into the oil and it would take all the metal shavings away, then drain that and put cheap oil in it and crank it and put some motor treatment in it and let it run for as long as the directions say and then drain that and put new oil in it. I was sketchy about that. So I am asking, has anyone heard about that before? and is there a possibility that from the coolant inside the oil caused the camshaft to mess up, causing this damage?

Yeah someone mentioned the timing belt causing it, but I was not sure. Is there anything else that might cause this like possibly the Camchaft being messed up from coolant sitiing in the oil for so long?