do I need a valve job?
 

I just finished replacing the worn tranny in my '74 1.8 with a freshly rebuilt unit. It's the first time I ever took the engine out of the car myself, and with delays and all, I finally got the car back together this past weekend, after more than two months. Unfortunately, it made horrible knocking noises when I first tried to start it on Saturday. On Sunday, I did a valve adjustment, and the car would start, and ran without substantial noise, but rather roughly. Pulling spark plug wires indicated that it wasn't firing at all on cylinder #1.
Having had enough of the do-it-yourself schtick, and not owning a compression tester, I drove it to a nearby mechanic and asked him to figure it out. He now tells me there's no compression on valve #1 and that he needs to pull the engine out of the car for a complete valve job. Oy!
Is it possible the valve is just sticking because the car sat unused for ten weeks? Should I put some fresh gas in it and drive it for a while in hopes that the problem will go away, or is this wishful thinking? Please help. I got in over my head on this project.

- Anthony

Re check the valves on that cylinder, and redo the compression test..

In many instances, a valve job will do damage to a somewhat tired engine, as it holds a little too much compression, than the old parts can take. There are exceptions to this, but very few..Almost any engine I have ever had to make a warranty repair on, was from a valve job, that caused something else to go bad.

I had this same problem kast weekend. Over the winter, I had converted my car to five bolt wheels. While I had the exhaust off, I adjusted the valves. Couldn't tune it, found #1 no compression. Must have forgotten to tighten the locknut on #1 exhaust, it was never closing. Readjusted and checked all the valves twice.

CGNJ