Project SportsRoof – Valve Noise Solved!

It’s been a while!!!!

Ya know, one would think that as you get older there’s more time for leisurely things.  But as second year teacher (at the age of “past 50”) and coaching our school’s basketball team there is no slowing down.  That’s my only excuse for not working much on Project SportsRoof.  Ok there’s one more….we’ve had a colder and wetter than normal winter.   This episode is purely due to “Spring Break” and having our taxes done (almost).

If you’ve followed along (did you know you can find Average Guy on YouTube as well?) you’ll know it’s been a long road with my 73 Mustang.  Multiple starts and stops, often caused by me exceeding my ‘Average Guy’s’ skill set and man power and even my car disappearing for a couple of weeks (but I found it).  Oh and don’t forget the tow truck driver that “broke” my front end!

Now SR73 (not SR71 the blackbird aircraft) or #ProjectSportsRoof is back on the road.  Having only driving about 30 miles since the engine rebuild, I noticed a lifter noise.  Not something you want to hear after all the time and $$ spent on it’s 351 C, in fact it’s a bit concerning.

The best place to start troubleshooting is to make sure the engine is getting the oil it needs.  That requires pulling the valve cover and running the engine.   Since I put the heads together myself, it’s a good idea to check the torque on the valves.  What better time to check that than when you have to take the valve covers off anyway?

Here is my quick video recap. There are a couple good tips in this one and here is a one more great tip. I can’t take credit for it because was shared with me sometime back. Should you have an old set of valve covers, cut the tops off to make viewing possible. That way when you let the car run (it’s the easiest way check if oil is flowing) the spraying oil is somewhat contained. You won’t see that in these videos….but you will see the mess it makes when you don’t use them!!!

Don’t forget to drop a comment, if you are so inclined.  Oh, if you have an event you’d like to tell other car peeps about, let me know and I’ll post it up!!

Tim