thanks for the response! good tip about the mechanical lifters. funny that we're both in the same boat on this one. I have the helicoil kit ordered and im popping the lid tomorrow to get a better look at it, i'll post back when i have more pictures to share.

Hi everyone, first post here. I recently bought a 1999 T5M (somewhat rare option with the factory manual transmission) in California and drove it to my home state of Wisconsin. When I picked the car up it had no visible mechanical issues and seemed to perform fine. The previous owner had done a lot ...