It was time to adjust the valves. Done that at least a dozen times before, never a problem. All went well until the final valve, when I overtightened the tiny bolt which holds the adjusting screw in place. Broke off the top half of the adjusting screw, not good....

Now I had to remove the lower half of the broken screw, which meant taking off the rocker arm assembly. Simple enough, I removed rocker arm, unscrewed lower half of adjusting screw, and replaced with a spare. Now I refit the rocker arm, and began tightening the bolts which attach rocker arm to engine block. And it happened again.

Must have eaten Wheaties that morning, managed to snap the head off center bolt. Bad day getting worse. I didn't think it would be good to be driving around with the rocker arm not properly secured to block. Now I had to figure out how to get the broken bolt out of the engine block. A drill was all I could think of, and since I didn't have access to one, I replaced valve cover and slowly made my way to Home Depot.

Purchased a drill and assortment of bits, drove the car home, and removed valve cover and rocker arm. Surprise! The piece of bolt broken in engine block had manged to loosen itself, probably during the drive to the hardware store. I happily removed bolt with my fingers, relieved that I didn't have to mess around with the drill.

I should have ended the madness there, replace the rocker arm assembly, and call it a day. Instead I decided the last thing I needed to do was check the pushrods for straightness, why not? Pulled them out, 2 at a time, then replaced. Was pulling out the final 2 pushrods when I heard the ringing sound of metal lifters falling onto their side, deep within the bowels of my B18. Feeling defeated, angry, and pretty darn stupid all at once, I realized it was time to shut the hood and open a beer.

What started as a routine valve adjustment turned into a $100 tow to my mechanic across town, plus approx $75 labor to remove/ replace the freeze plugs and reposition both fallen lifters. Need to buy a torque wrench. Oh well, at least the valves were adjusted correctly, which is about all I managed to do correctly that day.