<VV> '66 A/C Corsa - update

[NicolCS at aol.com]

The source of the loud banging has been found, and it wasn't a dropped  valve 
seat! After pulling a valve cover and checking the valve heights (looking  
for a dropped seat), I concluded that the seats were OK.  I then checked  
compression and found #4 had only 75 psi. and compression was accompanied  by loud 
hissing sound. Head gasket?  Why would that cause loud  noises?  A further 
inspection of the valve spring area revealed that the  exhaust spring on #4 was 
closer to the top of the rocker box than the other  springs and the inside of 
the Otto cover had a deep groove from the valve spring  retainer.  I removed and 
disassembled the head to find that the #4 exhaust  valve guide was split.  
I'm not sure of the sequence of events, but it  appears that the roller rocker 
rolled off the end of the valve tip and was able  to push the valve over, 
splitting the guide. The engine wasn't in service very  long (1K) so there were no 
wear patterns on the valve tip to indicate a proper  placement of the roller.  
Does anyone know who makes the orange anodized  roller rockers???
 
The teardown of this car was pretty fun.  Nice and clean, plus this  car has 
zillions of cool and correct engine modifications. (Billet fan brg,  extra 
chrome plating, positive secondary linkage, bored-out carbs with extended  vents, 
pertronix, degreed dale(?) balancer, seth's wires, otto pan & spacer,  otto 
covers, roller rockers, heim control arms, crown bracket, bilstiens,  elec and 
mech fuel pumps, Souce air dam and so on. One question: the car has a  very 
tall and unusual but stock looking dipstick:  Where a normal 140  has about a 3" 
exposed handle, this car's dipstick has about 7" of exposed,  chrome handle.  
Is this something unique to certain A/C equipped cars???  TIA
Craig N.
65,66,&67 3,2&4drs
 
<background> I saw a nice '66 A/C Corsa on the street a couple of  weeks ago 
and stopped to chat with the owner.  I gave him my business  card.  Last night 
I received a call from him - he had a loud noise that  sounded like a 
lifter.. only much louder.  We fear the dreaded valve  seat.  He dropped the car off 
at my shop this morning and what a peach it  is!  Flawless Willow Green with a 
black interior, some kind of polished  forged wheels, flawless chrome, A/C, 
Am/Fm, Hazard, Posi, Correct mats,  140.  He and his family were all the nicest 
people too.  Tomorrow  morning I'll drop a valve cover and see what's up (as 
if we didn't know  already).  The car came out of a collection in Texas, 
apparently one of  thirty very nice cars.  It still has a North Texas Corvair 
Assoc. spare  tire cover.  Anyone know this car?
I'll keep ya posted.
Craig N.<unsnip>