[niki_west]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a 1981 Targa with a 3,2 motor that had the top end rebuild with 4K miles on it since then.

As I was driving it home it was clicking a little bit from the right cylinder bank. I thought, it's been sitting for a while, maybe the valves need adjusting. The noise kept getting louder and the when I got off the highway it was really loud and the engine wasn't firing on all the cylinders. The drive home was approximately 200 miles. Oil pressure was around 5 bar the whole time. (The Targa makes a lot of wind noise!)

I got a friend of a friend to come by and listen to it and he popped of the right upper valve cover. The middle rocker arm fell out.....The other thing he noticed straight away was that the inside of the valve cover was dry. Bone dry, not a drop of oil on it.
His assessment is that the oil line to that side is blocked and the cam ran dry.

Does anybody have a picture of what the inside of a normal valve cover should look like? I pulled the one off the left side yesterday and it is dry also!

All I know now is that I will now be getting some experience with the engine from my dream car! I wanted to do that sometime, not be forced to do so at the beginning!

Thanks for the help!