I decided to replace my valve covers finally, since they were leaking and I was getting more blow-by than Jeff Beck. I can't get to our shared parking space behind the apt building, so I have to street park, but I had scored the killer parking right in front. So I started what I thought was a 90-minute job on Sunday....
What a PITA. Climbing over the fenders to get to the back of the engine was like trench warfare. I gave up on trying to loosen the diz hold-down to dial back my timing, and just tried to wrestle the covers off and scrape the old gasket crust off.
Here are my rockers. Is there an oil drain passage at the back of the heads by the firewall? One that may be blocked with sludge? Causing oil to back up there right where the main oil drips are?
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Rockers were fine, a bit of twist/side-to-side play but nothing loose or whack.
Then it got dark. Very dark. I became crushed with despair, so just lowered the hood and was going to finish next weekend. BUT! Goddamned Wednesday street sweeping! I woke up with a start at 4am remembering that!
So I tried to seal the gaskets and seat my valve covers and reconnect the plug wires and vacuumhoses and all that crap in the dark at 5am in a panic. Started first try! Then died. I got about100' still in street sweeping zone then had to tear off all the hoses and figure out what I missed. I called work gonna be late. Just wanted to get her someplace I would not get towed at this point.
Sonewhere in all this I think I left my keys in the engine compartment. I thought they were just fallen behind the seat and would find them later, rushed upstairs fir spare truck keys while my roommate who has a gray Camry and an office job with no deadlines sat petting his cat and watching Youtube videos where people watch other people play video games. Your guess as good as mine here.
So finally got her running not dying in gear from vacuum leaks. Decided I'd head several miles to the commuter rail station. Metrolink is very fast, too bad they don't start running in time to be useful to anybody who has to be at work at 7am. Like commuting to what I might ask? Your funeral? But since I was resigned to being 2 hours late it was the best option.
Turns out setting gaskets in a tearing hurry in the dark is a low-probability-of-success move. I parked at the train station and clouds of smoke came billowing up from my engine. The oil leak at the back of the block was now a stream on to the exhaust manifolds. Not sealed it seems.
To be continued.
