Have been slowly dismantling a $100 parts wagon and got to the engine yesterday. Pulled a valve cover off and right away noticed 1 missing rocker arm and the corresponding exhaust valve spring at a noticeably lower height than the other three. When I pulled the head, found that the exhaust valve was held open by a dislodged concentric disc insert that surrounds the valve stem. This disc is of slightly larger diameter than the exhaust valve itself (not a stem seal?). Found the missing rocker arm lodged in one of the coolant chambers. From the looks of the piston chamber, the previous owner must have been running on 3 cylinders for awhile.

Dropped a valve seat. Seen it lots on old VWs. Helluva mess. Bet ya a soda you'll find a crack in the head from the spark plug hole to the recess where the seat is supposed to be.

Found the same thing on a $70 SPFI EA-82 got it to run but it wasn't pretty smoked like a SOB!!