I had the ticking noise and decided to give this fix a try. I ordered the parts from Phil and off I went with the repair. No one told me how difficult it would be to get to those 5mm bolts on the driver side. I ended up buying the 5mm hex in a 1/4" socket all molded in one piece and it worked perfectly with a wobble extension.

The next problem I had was getting the valve cover back on securely. First attemp had me thinking it was on properly until I went for a test drive and lost a couple quarts of oil. I removed the cover again to find that the gasket over the outside hump moved off during installation causing the problem.

No matter what I did to get the cover back in place could I do it without this thing moving. I finally decided to silicone the thing down and went to get a hair cut. When I returned I tried the installation again and when I felt back there with a couple of fingers I could feel the gasket. WHOOPEE! I couldn't believe I finally got it.

Car purrs now like a kitten with no more ticking. I am still getting a little smoke from the residual oil burn off, which had me thinking leak. I've rechecked everything and all seems well.

All in all, a very good fix that cost me less than $400 with parts and some additional tools I needed.

Dealer price would have been much higher.

Thanks forum members.

Tommy