I parked my '89 626 in April when I put my Supra on the road. I now have a
job where I put a lot of miles on a car, and the Supra isn't up to it, and
I ain't using my Scion for this!

When I started the car after sitting, the clacking from the HLA that's
'bad' was horrendous!!! You could hear it quite a ways away from the car.
It was due for an oil change, but I needed tha car. I bought a new valve
cover gasket and a set of 4 HLA's, since the place that had them in stock
didn't sell them separately...all together, $50.

I also picked up a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil and Castrol Syntec 5W-30.
Since I needed tha car that day I added a half quart of each. (This was a
mistake since it overfilled the crankcase and I could smell burning oil
for about 200 miles.) The clacking was very faint most of the time, with
an occasional increase in volume every other start. It finally subsided to
a tolerable level.

Now the car had been used for a 20 mile one way commute to work, and a LOT
of 2-5 mile trips around town. Now it gets run 4 hours a day with two
brief turn offs, and an average speed of 30 MPH (anywhere from 15 MPH to
55 MPH.)

It was due for a change, so I changed the oil. I put in 3.5 quarts of
Castrol GTX High Mileage, 10W-30, and a half quart of MMO. Level on the
dipstick is where it should be.

The car runs as quiet as new! It hasn't done the clacking thing since the
oil change. So...do I open up the valve cover and have a look, or do I
just count my blessings and continue to drive?! Everything seems just fine
after two days.

crossing to Toyota cause there are some decent people there, too...