[L79v]

old dog,
I'm sorry you read things into this that are not so. The whole thing doesn't make sense to me either. I have never "had words" with this guy, I've been more than patient through this whole experience. I went along with his suggestions, and did not direct him to do anything he did not agree with.
I won't go into all the parts that were replaced, but if he suggested something was needed, I got the money to him by the next day. When he said the noise was coming from the side to side play in some of the rocker arms, I was to save him some time by determining what thicknesses of shims were needed
and at what locations on the rocker shafts. During rotating the engine during this process, I felt a few rockers that seemed a little loose, and checked a couple with feeler gauges. Prior to that, when the shop I used to remove and reinstall the engine heard it, they checked the valve lash (did not adjust them,
so the builder couldn't say someone else worked on it, and he's not responsible), they told me the lash "was all over the place". Why wasn't this all done correctly when the engine was reassembled? That's what I'd like to know. I have been totally honest in everything I've said. I wanted a Cobra since I was 15 years old. Waited 50 years to get one, drove it a few times before cold weather arrived. As a precaution, after seeing some smoke out one pipe when starting after sitting a while, decided to have the engine gone over. Close to 5 years later got the engine back, and here we are. That makes no sense to me either, but I presented the facts as they are.