1997 4.6 Lincoln Continental Roller Rockers Jumped Out

I have taken apart a 4.6 today and had 2 intake roller rocker jump off on each head. This was a result of using some old gas from a boat. This thing was smoking and knocking like crazy.
I was thinking it was a injector problem. I swapped out the injectors and it was still knocking and smoking so bad you couldn't see the car.
How did this happen with just old gas ??? I even poured it through 3 coffee filters. Nothing in it.
I drained out the gas and put in new, but it was too late.
I figured the motor was trashed, so I started taking the top end apart. I wanted to see under the heads, to see what was going on.
I took the intake and valve covers off and found 2 roller rockers off under the cam. They were laying in the head, right under were they go. Then I found the same thing on the other head ??? No damage at all. The cam was not touched and didn't have a mark on it, roller rockers were perfect. No oil problem ??, Nothing broken ??
The rollers were just laying there, so I stopped taking it apart. I sure don't want to pull the heads unless I have to.
Is this common ??? How would the rollers come out without hurting anything ???? Has anyone ever seen this happen ?
Why was it 2 intakes on each side ?? Do you think I could just put them back in and would be fine ???
This is a engine with 104,000 miles. It ran perfect, supper strong, and like new inside.



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Having the rockes fall off is a common problem. BUT, bad gas wouldn't cause that. I'd put the rockers back in and give it a whirl and see how it runs.

you says it's smoking and knocking. Black smoke? blue smoke? rod knock? A little more info please.

When i say roller rocker, as you my know its not really a rocker arm, because its a over head cam set up. The bad gas thing does not sound right to me either. it was the only thing that was different ?? It happened the morning after the gas was put in.
I had backed off the exhaust pipes on both sides because i was lead to believe that the cats had been clogged up, maybe?. i am sure thats why the smoke was so thick around the car, instead of going out the back. The smoke was white and very thick.
the knocking noise was not a crank or rod issue because it would stop at a rev. the knock was a pre ignition type knock, after all 2 intake valves on each side were not opening.
I still am leaning toward putting back together, but at this time have stopped.
Again, i guess the question is, if the 2 intake rockers jumped out of both heads, would it have caused any other problems that i cant see ???
Please help.......

You might want to pull the plugs and check them.

Now the rockers (or followers actually) were they off the intake valves for the same cylinder? If they were, it would run on 7 cylinders and flood the intake mainifold. It would run like crap then.

yes it was the same ones on each side. the motor would hardly run and would not even move in gear. the brand new plugs i just put in after putting clean gas in, were black after 2-3 minuets.
How would they come out without hurting anything ???
Is this a common problem with 4.6 engines or did it just happen to me ???