Greetings Brickboard! My name is Charles, I live in Eureka (northern california) and I've been lurking here ever since I picked up a '66 122s from a local craigslist ad (at $500, a steal!).

I put a battery in it and changed the oil/filter and damned if the thing didn't drive me around for a couple months (nothing too heavy though, thankfully - and you'll see why.) Then the timing gear went, so I decided it was time to really do some work to it.

I changed all the fuel lines, the fuel filter, the timing gear (and made sure to line it up right,) thermostat, water pump, got the horn working and cleaned the heck out of the engine bay (what I could do with diluted marine cleaner and a wet rag, anyway...)

All in all, it was a whole heck of a lot quieter when I got it running again, but that led me to notice some tapping coming from the valve cover area... Also, around this time, after a good amount of short test runs around town during which it performed very well, I took it on the freeway for a very short distance just to make sure everything was hunky-dory. Which was when the oil light came on during idle and it started dripping oil from one of the oil pan bolts right underneath the timing cover (I kinda fudged the gasket with sealant right there, so I figured no big deal - I just need to get some sealant up in that screw, or if all else fails replace the oil pan gasket.)

So I decide to tackle the tapping noise first. I figured tune-up, adjust the valve clearance, adjust the timing, make sure the carbs are oiled and whatnot, and that would probably go away...

Today seemed like a great day for a little tinkering, with some un-eureka sun. I undid the screws holding the valve cover on, lifted it off and found a shiny little green plastic present (see picture). It appears that the previous owner, while filling up the oil, accidentally dropped the plastic ring from below the cap on the oil bottle. I know it wasn't one of mine, because all I've put into the car is Castrol GTX and that has a black ring on the cap. Then, right next to it, is exactly half of one of the little rounded caps for the valve tappet(?) I'm not exactly sure of my terminology here... So I included pictures. It also looks like less than half of the valves have those little rounded caps, and there appears to be some bending going on in the linkages in there...

I'm not sure if I'm into total engine rebuild territory at this point or not, but I wanted to post to maybe get some opinions, share a chuckle, and warn people to WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING while working on your car, no matter how little or insignificant the task may seem, a little slip like this can really set you back.

Sorry for the long-winded post, hope you all had a great summer, and thanks for being such awesome sources of Volvo information, all of you.