[TR] Waking a sleeping car

[Randall]

---- Geo Hahn <ahwahneetr at gmail.com> wrote: 

>  At a minimum I'd take the valve cover off and rotate the engine twice to
> assure no valves are sticking (old modern fuel sets up like glue).  

When I woke my current "barn find" TR3 from its 33 year nap, I also pulled the rocker cover and shot some oil over the rockers but proceeded to try to start the engine.  Since this is a non-interference engine, a stuck valve would just result in one cylinder not running, no real damage.  And my main interest in leaving off the cover was to make sure the rockers were getting oiled through the shaft.  It did, and there were no bad noises, so I buttoned it back up and drove to TRfest 2009 that way.  Since then, all it has had is new rod bearings (oil pressure got kind of low) and a new head gasket.

A previous TR3 (literally found in a corn field) had apparently had the rear cam bearing installed wrong, so the rockers never got oil through the shaft!  I don't think the previous owner drove it much after the so-called "rebuild", but I drove it at least 3000 miles that way.  Strangely enough, the wear in the rockers and valve guides was extraordinarily bad ...

- Randall