Well, it started and ran

[Bliggida]

I went out and checked the fluids. Coolant was a little low. And maybe it was just me, I thought I detected a smell of oil in the coolant. The oil in the engine was burnt and that'll need changed. Good source for clues too, but none the less I keyed it up and the motor ran. Has that slight valve tick. At least, if it runs it'll be much easier to diagnose. Sounds more like its on the left bank valves. And it gets louder when you run the engine up in RPM slightly, and then back off. A split second later you'll hear the ticking get louder when the engine goes back down to idle. The longer the engine runs the more prominent the ticking becomes. So I didn't let it actually warm up, just ran for a few minutes. It fires right up, got gas, 12 volts, spark. etc. And except for that tick it sounds like it runs perfect. The idle is fine, revs up without hesitation.

Broken valve guide?

I'm going to take the heads off and start calling up a few shops here in town to see what they'll charge to do a valve job just on the chance it may be reasonable? I really don't feel like doing the valves myself. But due to cost I may just have to.
...restock the fridge...

[nino]

broken valve guide would cause it to smoke like a cheech and chong movie. well, at least mine did. to repair my "broken valve guide" it cost me a little over a grand. but then that didnt even fix all my problems.

[John_D.]

I'd say get that burnt oil out of there (maybe run some flush through it, or some lifter cleaner) and some fresh oil. That will firm up the lifter action, and may be all you need to eliminate the ticking.

I'm glad to hear that it fired up ok! [img]smile.gif[/img]