When it rains...

... in pours. In my case, the trickle of minor problems escalated to a rush of major ones. In defense of the car, the transmission is 20 years old, and the engine is 12 years old. There are some things that are just going to need replacing.

My last engine pull was to replace the clutch which had shattered on me. While putting everything back in, I found to root cause - the arm that the throw out bearing sits on has been gouged severely. Here's an old vs new pic for reference:




So, the engine comes out again, the mounting parts for the throw out bearing get tapped out painfully, the new parts go on, and now I have a perfectly working car... right? (You know the answer to that rhetorical question.)

I adjusted the valves once more before putting the engine back in - easy to do while its out. The Number 1 exhaust valve (all the way in the back on the passenger side) is unable to be adjusted. The adjustment screw is fully backed out, and the clearance is about .001 when it needs to be about .006.

Bottom line - the exhaust valve is sinking into the head. Not good. So sometime soon, the engine is coming out once more, and I'm redoing the heads. I'll be at my mechanics place on Saturday working on it I suspect.

But hey, my exhaust system looks pretty nice.


So does the bell housing of my transmission.