Should I drive this vehicle?

Two weeks ago I got back from a weekend trip driving 5-6 hours each way through the mountains of West Va.  The 87 2.1L watercooled van preformed well, and had no problems, but after I got home I noticed a small oil leak had started.  I traced it to a push rod tube, and ordered a collapsible replacement tube from Bus Depot, along with the seals.

This weekend I tore into the project and got a rude shock.  When I pulled the #1 cyl pushrod out of the tube it was bent! Curved into a bow shape.  Not kinked or creased, but so far out of line that it had rubbed a hole in the thin wall of the tube, thus the oil leak.

Looking further, I checked the other pushrods, and all were straight and true, but I found problems with all 4 of the valve adjusting screws   It looked like Stan's cats had chewed up the ends.

History:  the heads were replaced 3 years ago by a VW dealer, using AMC heads.  Four months ago I checked the clearance, after reading about Boston Bob's .006 setting.  I found the pre-load to be very, very tight, so loosened them and set them to .006.  I did not bother to check the push rods or the ends of the adjusting screws at that time.  Don't know if they were already in that condition, or if the damage is recent.

This is a daily driver, so I just put everything back together, and started the engine, which ran fine for a few moments before I shut it down and began to wonder, should I drive this?  Will this cause more damage?  Can the adjusting screws just be ground smooth?  Can a replacement push rod be used?  The manuals all talk about putting the same ones back into the same place, so I'm worried about improper mix and match.  The top of the valve stem ends are fine by the way.

Any info about what may have caused this problem and what to do about it is appreciated.

Ed in Aspen Hill

87 vanagon