Brownrecluse wrote:
What are the symptoms of worn rockers? I m fairly capable of fixing stuff but have never taken the head off an engine so I don't think I will do it myself. I m going to see if the dealer can find out if the timing belt was replaced at 100k. Thanks again for the info. I figured I was going to have to put some money into it to keep it going. I got it for $6500. The good news is there is not much rust really and that's surprising here in CT with all the salt.
It's tough to feel any difference between worn rockers, but you can check your MAF values with one of the diagnostic tools. I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in those however because the engine needs ARP head studs anyhow, and they are easy to change at the same time.
No need to pull the head, just the obnoxious valve cover. Then you can do the ARP's one for one, unless you already have a bad HG leak, then you'd need to pull the head, resurface it and add new gasket. The only technically challenging bit is setting up the timing, but it's not too bad. Mostly it's a tremendous cleaning effort (injector ports and intake) and a good bit of disassembly, and stubborn or hard to access bolts (add Weeks intake kit).
The parts for the whole thing runs about $1300. Contact Geordi if you want an expert to do the work. Don't let a dealership or mechanic that hasn't worked on at least a few of these engines touch it, or you'll be sorry