I believe someone asked that question in another thread. Billman said it was normal.

 

so the engine is rough at idle? does it pull good on higher rpm?

Why don't you do the IAC valve cleanup? It might help a lot, you'd be surprised. And it's free.


As for the retainers, these pics are useless. You can't tell unless you're really experienced, like Billman250, or slows2k. You need to take off the cams and then you'll be able to see. Hey, might as well change them out, while you're half way there. Harbor Freight tools sell the tool for valves, will help you do it, for like $20.
And you can feed a bunch of nylon rope inside the cyl to keep the valve from falling in all the way. maybe rotate the piston half way up, then feed the rope, then gently rotate the piston up til you feel resistance. There's a DIY somewhere here.


Good luck.

 

Another update:

last night valves were adjusted (since i already had the valve cover off). afterwards, fuel injectors were swapped out for another set of used ones. there was a lot of crud on the original fuel injectors and intake manifold. now the car runs smooth and i'm no longer getting any misfire codes, but i have a feeling one of the injectors are still bad because my fuel trim is around -8%.

hint of the day: don't ever use q-tips to clean inside an engine...one snapped in half and fell into an intake port. what was worse was that the intake valve was half open and the q-tip was sitting right on top of it. after a good 15-20minutes of panic, brainstorming, and careful planning, the q-tip was sucessfully removed with a Ridgid shop vac hooked up to the throttle body. note the spark plug was also removed to ensure air would flow from the spark plug hole into the cylinder then out the intake ports. lol...the Ridgid shop vac was the best $30 i've ever spent

 

That's a brilliant solution, based on evaluating the problem and the resources available. You evaluated the problem, looked at the resources available, and solved the problem. Job well done!