when I build a motor again.
Last fall, the '89 with the LeBaron motor had a stuck VLA.
I was cheap when I rebuilt it (remrmber, Frank?)
and reused the old ones in a motor with unknown miles.
Serves me right, I figured. I had little time, so I drove something else for a while, bought new adjusters, and put 'em in. No change, and the cam bearing cap over that rocker had pounded loose (!!!)

So I figure, right, dummy, must be a stuck valve. Set of junkyard heads, put in new seals, lap the exhaust valves a little, clean everything up- and do a swap one day. Get the old right head off- and there's this bit of... junk... in the oil passageway to the head. Not huge, but kind of soft... and textured. Don't think too much of it, pull the left (noisy) head- same thing, only bigger. So I clean the 'junk' in the solvent tank and it's bits of a blue paper shop towel!
It must have lodged into the passageway, and when under pressure and flow, impeded the cold flow enough to kill the lifter. I have since stopped using blue towels, and 10-40 is good enough, too!

Better to learn on things like this than motors I'm putting a lot of money into! I guess...

Toby <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

I once left a red shop rag in the intake valley of a GM 3.8l v-6 and reassembled it.

It ran for a few minutes, then made a single CLUNK! and wasn't running anymore. Rag got caught in the timing gears and stopped the engine. Got it out through a pushrod hole after pulling the front rocker cover and fishing around for a while.

There was a tech I knew who did exactly the same thing as me only he didn't know until the car came back with the oil light on and a full pan. It was full of shredded red rag. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

A coworker of mine bought a Ducati race engine that had sat for a few years and was a spare for a race team.

He found the red shop towel in it after he test fired it up. The guy who sold it to him was very sorry and gave him a refund.

Apparently race engines with titanium rods dont chew up show towels any better than a normal motors. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Kevin

Diaper clothe makes the BEST oil rags (I buy them in bulk when they go on sale), not even a hint of lintn on those things. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />