[BonzoHansen]

To answer the OP question…

I’ve never heard of a mechanic preferring to do a solenoid instead of a whole starter (ignoring remote solenoids like Fords). Ever.

As a guy that used to run a busy repair shop, the idea of opening up the valve covers on an old (14 years) high mileage car that is a PITA car to work on and is probably driven harder than the average car is fairly distasteful and the outcome is more often than not going to be negative. Once he opens that old engine he basically owns it. Let’s look. Note I’m using the term ‘you’ for illustrative purposes, and not specifically you as in the OP.

Hyd valvetrains don’t often need to be adjusted – so there is probably wear or other issues. But let’s say despite his warnings you still decide to move ahead with the adjustment, which should include new VC gaskets. I’d be curious of book labor to adjust valves in that car. I’ll guess 3+ hours labor, so let’s assume $350-$450 for the job (labor, parts, shop costs, all of it). And unless he is very used to this job on this kind of car it will take him at least full book time – time he could be spending on the 2 brake jobs sitting in the drawer.

Scenario 1: The tech gets in there and finds on the 2nd head that there is a stud pulling he calls you and tells you it needs to come apart and the heads redone. You say no. Too bad you are still out at least $250 (here I am assuming the shop reduces some costs given the issue) because the VC gasket job is still performed – it has to be. But you get upset – most people get upset at paying troubleshooting time or understanding that the $$ they spent cannot fix their problem. Nuts.

Scenario 2: The job is done, but the true cause cannot be detected (say a stud just starting to pull or a lobe or lifter on the way out). It comes back 2 weeks later. Great, take it apart again to see (while more work sits in the drawer), but for free because the customer is complaining they just spent $$$, or refund it and say good luck. Either way the shop & tech are out hours and $$ and the customer is unhappy. Nobody wins. Now imagine worse case is something lets loose and wipes out the motor. Uh-oh. I know who is getting blamed.

Are you a kid (say under 25)? That makes it even worse because it is perceived that you probably beat on it and have no funds to ‘do it right’, and kids seem to yell and scream a lot, generally unwilling to hear anything but what they want to hear. Hell, we’ve seen that behavior on this site. All kids? No. You? Not that I know of and I am not insinuating that. But that is the general method of operation so that is the way a shop may treat all ‘kids’.

So, a busy shop won’t want to do a job like that as it gets in the way and has little upside potential, and a slow shop may do it, but maybe there is a reason they are slow. The only way I’d touch it is if it were slow and you were fully aware that this may end of being a total loss – you’d sign a warranty waiver. But even that can be meaningless, and the credit card company denies payment or you end up in small claims court and to boot you hear from the better business bureau. All for a job you didn’t really want in the 1st place. Thus it is still a crap shoot for the shop.

So there is your answer from the shop perspective.

Tim’s right, if you want to own old, out of the norm cars you got to learn to do it yourself or at least have a trusted mechanic or friend. Going into a shop blind with and old car is a fail.