[Roadsters] No spark... no run... (IT'S ALIVE!!!!)

[The Ken Pearce]

Thanks John!   Oh it's definitely the valve cover and not the head gasket.  I
actually did a happy dance when I carefully looked at that...  I used the
thicker head gasket that Dean sells and the special sealant for all the oil
passages.  Not a leak anywhere other than the valve cover, and it appears to
have stopped as I have tightened the two nut bolts.   Ran it down Chuckanut
Drive (my new daily commute) this afternoon and she wants to run!  I forgot
how fun these cars are on a nice sunny day with a twisty road overlooking the
ocean.   I'll get a GoPro HD camera and get some video of my commute.  It's
pretty epic..

Had a new set of tires put on this morning.  My 15 year old set of hardly used
Michellins were cracking on the sidewalls so bad that it wasn't worth trying
to get anymore miles or years out of them.  This cars are not ones in which
you want to have a blowout when you least expect it.  The guys at Les Schwab
were cool, they even hand torqued each lugnut as I had asked them to be
"gentle" with their impact air wrenches...

Cheers,

Ken
Bow, WA
68-2000

> From: sandhoff at csus.edu
> To: ken__pearce at hotmail.com
> Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:48:34 -0700
> Subject: Re: [Roadsters] No spark...  no run...      (IT'S ALIVE!!!!)
>
>
> > 2.)  The funky braided wire inside the distributor was burnt, toast, gone
to
> > Jesus...  as I removed it, it fell into two pieces...
>
> With the distributor wire connected to the (+) side of the coil, this wire
> acted as a fuse. By frying itself it saved lots of other things.
>
> > Now to figure out how to keep the valve cover from leaking (seaping
> > ever so slightly at the passenger rear corner).
>
> Hmmm, be sure it's the valve cover that's leaking, and not from
> the head/block junction. The U20 is notorious for a slight oil
> leak at that corner, because that's where the oil feeds up into
> the head. Never head gaskets have an extra seal at that spot.
> Clean the head really well, then start it up and see if the leak is
> from the cover (dribbles down the head), or from the head/block
> (head stays clean).
>
> -- John
>      John F Sandhoff   sandhoff at csus.edu   Sacramento, CA
>
> p.s. Congrats on getting it back to life! I'm jealous - I haven't had
> mine out at all this summer :-(