Woot! The beast lives!!!!

So, in the light of day (and from under the car, after removing the intake manifold bracket and a bunch of other wires and hoses, etc), I could clearly see that there was a hose leaking. It runs from the driver's side on the bottom of the intake manifold to the bottom of the throttle body. Where it attached to the intake manifold, it had deteriorated.

Now, a smart person would have checked (and replaced) this hose when he was cleaning the manifold off of the head. But, I never claimed to be smart. Getting the hose clamp off the hose from under the car (where it is wedged between the head, intake manifold, and starter) took 30+ minutes. Would've taken 3 seconds while the head was detached.

So, replaced the hose, added fluids, reconnected the battery... And she started right up.

My only concern at this point, is that it is making a knocking sound... From what I understand, the rockers are purely hydralic and can take a while to 'pump up'. Yes, I checked (and triple checked) the timing belt alignment, and the distributor. If it keeps up after a bit, I'll recheck the timing, and beg, borrow, or scrounge a timing light. For now, I'm not driving it any further than I car to walk. I drove it around the block (about 5 mi. here in FL). It did get quieter the further I went. By the time I pulled back into my drive, the knocking was unnoticable while cruising, but it got noticable when accelerating.

From what my 'friend' says, the rockers don't lube up while idling. They have to be run.

Anyone able to weigh in?