[Verdoro 68]

My son and I are planning on roadtripping his Ventura 1800 miles to the Duct Tape Drags in October. We spent the last year going through the chassis-related items - suspension, brakes, steering, as well as the cooling system. He's been using the car as his daily driver around town for the last 8 months with minimal issues.

One thing we haven't touched is the engine. It's the original '74 2bbl 350 with 46 screw in stud heads. It has a little over 100k according to the odometer. The engine appears to have never been opened up or out of the car. When we first got it, I ran a compression check and cylinders 5 and 7 were around 80psi. The others were at 120. Since he's been driving it, 5 and 7 now measure 100psi. I originally thought the lower compression might be due to the head gasket between the cylinders, but since it got better after driving maybe it's the rings? I did a coolant check and it came back negative for combustion material.

When we fired it up after sitting a few months while we worked on the chassis, it had a lifter tick, but it went away after it ran for a short while and we dismissed it. A couple weeks ago my son changed the oil and I had him put 6 quarts of Driven 15-50. Soon after it the lifter tick came back. The dipstick was reading high, so he drained some oil to put the level where it should be and the tick mostly went away. He pulled the rocker covers and everything looks good with no sign of a flat cam lobe checking out. I finally put an oil pressure gauge on it over the weekend, and to my surprise the pressure is great.

I'd like to avoid getting stuck in the desert on the way to Arizona. I'm thinking the best course at would be to minimally disturb things ahead of October, but I don't love the low compression, and I wonder if tick could come back to haunt us. I'm leaning towards installing the 4bbl, removing the valley pan to get a look at the lifters and cam and going from there. Thoughts?