Stupid effin car. Pardon me whilst I vent.
I bought the thing 3 years ago, promptly started doing the following:
Removed floorboard tar
Replaced relay baord
replaced injectors
replaced fuel lines (twice)
Replaced all hoses
Replaced rear reflector
Replaced seats
Rebuilt pedal cluster
Installed new clutch cable
Installed new Accel cable
Fixed turn signlals
Fixed Ebrake
Found that the floorboard/battery tray were rusted through so I bought a welder and taught myself how to weld and then proceeded to:
Weld in new drivers floorboard
POR15'd all floorboards
Welded in new seat mounts
Cut out rust from longs and welded in my fabricated patches
Installed stock front sway bar after welding on U-tabs
Welded in new battery tray
Removed small bit of rust from front trunk channel and Por15'd it and re-installed nice rubber seal
Replaced bug steel wheels with polished Mahles
Installed new carpet
replaced broken fog lamp
replaced cracked tail light lens
replaced ground strap from tranny
replaced all shifter bushings
de-rusted inside of gas tank, and re-painted
replaced fuel pump
replaced center console bulbs
Installed the JWest engine lid thingy so I could use the stock springs after the original hinge broke off
And I just got early bumpers ready to be repainted then installed in place of the heavy '75 ones
Here's where I'm at now:
I heard some knocking in the engine and decided to learn how to do a valve adjustment, and after much reading of posts here, I tackled it. Unfortunately I have hydraulic lifters (I knew the car had them when I bought it, but didn't know what it meant). After wrestling with the stupid valve covers I made adjustments as instructed by many of the postings here (don't worry, I didn't adjust them as though they were the non-hydro type), and when I got the valve covers back on I drove around and had the same freakin' clackity-clack noise that I had before, only now I had oil dumping out all over my right heat exchanger. I guess the valve cover either isn't seated properly, or the new cork gastket isn't doing it's job. Hopefully I just need to reseat the valve cover. Either way it looks like a major oil spill on my garage floor.
So here I am with 2 questions:
1) How the FUCH do you get the valve cover spring thing (bail?) back on without moving the cover? I can pry the thing off easily enough by popping off one side of the spring, but when it comes to re-installing it, it won't push up over the valve cover unless I use the a big-ass screw driver and the heat exchanger for leverage (something I know I shouldn't do).
2) since my engine is still knocking loudly, or ticking, or puking or whatever, do I assume it needs a rebuild? If so, can it be rebuilt back to specs with NO hydros?, or should I just sell the car and take a big $ loss on the original purchase price?
I just found out that I may have my first little one on the way and there isn't enough $$ or time to do what I would like to do, which would be to buy a Raby kit, find a 6, or rebuild it myself. Oh yeah, how much does a rebuild typically cost? (It's a 2 liter).