I'm gonna pull them off and polish'em up. The hood is on the car and it's a stocker, so i dont see much water or anything getting near the engine, and since it's all oiled it shouldnt rust, right?
you'll get oil all over the engine bay and it will smoke like a freight train when you drive it. My push rods rusted and the tops of heads where the valve covers meet, but i wasn't driving the car, so no oil on the pushrods... Also, you do lose a lot of oil...I didn't even drive mine, just started it up in the driveway a few times and had like 3 quarts when i changed it after that, so I wouldn't do it if I were you. You can polish them in a couple hours.
EDIT: Ahh...parked car, totally different story ha ha, miss-communication I suppose.
LOL, i guess i should have mentioned the car will be PARKED. I'm guessing no, i just wanted to double check, maybe someone has a horror story i havent heard yet.
I'd at least cover the openings up with a suitable rag or tarp. As Murphy's Law goes, anything that can fall in a hole that's not supposed to - will. I'm kind of paranoid about stuff falling in my engine anyway...