VinnyBin, I wouldn't drive it with the other half of the rubber pcv valve grommet in the valve cover. I don't THINK that it would do any damage, but there is a lot of spinning stuff under there and that little grommet could cause some serious headaches. I REALLY sympathize with you be cause removing, and then replacing, that driver side valve cover is a major PITA. I just did it this past weekend and that engine bay is made for tiny little hands. The driver side valve cover is basically wedged under the brake booster and getting to the back bolt for the cover requires some serious contortion and unique little tools. It also requires that you sacrifice some knuckle skin to the car gods.
Getting the valve cover back on is also a bit of a pain. The first time I did it I ended up twisting the rubber valve cover gasket up and when I drove the VX oil ended up spilling out onto the hot exhaust manifold creating a lot of smoke, which put a big load in my pants (thought the VX was on fire). I had to go back in remove the valve cover, AGAIN, and ended up having to remove the driver side engine hoist point to gain enough room to get the valve cover back on without twisting the gasket.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need any pointers.
As for the timing belt; it's really not that tough to replace it yourself. NFPGasmask (Bart) wrote a very thorough step-by-step on how to do it. It is time consuming, but very doable. http://www.vehicross.info/modules.ph...warticle&id=63
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
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