Rocker Arm Adjustment

[Eddie 70]

Well I now have about 500 miles on my newly rebuilt engine. It only taken since sometime around Thanksgiving to get there. Anyway, I have a slight ticking sound coming from the drivers side of the engine. I have the valve covers off and everything looks good. Can I just go back through the initial valve adjustment procedure or can I just tighten each one a quarter turn or so? At cylinder 1, which valve should be open or closed if I start like I did at the beginning. Thanks for any help.
Eddie

 

[page62]

Adjust the valves with the engine warm and running instead of the "static" adjustment procedure.

 

[92ghost]

"Adjust the valves with the engine warm and running instead of the "static" adjustment procedure."

This will get messy very quickly if you adjust more than one Rocker. To avoid hot oil running down the side of the engine try going to the junk yard and picking up a valve cover from an old junker 350. Cut the top off the valve cover with a hacksaw, clean it off real good (don't want hacksaw shavings in your oil) use the old gasket and slap it on. You should have ample room to adjust all rockers on that side of the engine without spilling a drop of oil. No Runs, No drips and No errors. You can also use the same cover on the other side...

 

[offshore]

I don't know what kind of cam you put in with your rebuild but if you put in a roller don't adj. running! a loose lifter on a roller cam can damage the brgs. on the roller lifter. the lifter jumps off the cam and because of the steep ramp the cam comes around and wacks the roller when loose. some lifters are spring loaded to keep them in contact with the cam at all times even when loose.

 

[Eddie 70]

Thanks guys. I have heard the hot adjustment is the way to go. I guess I will see if I can get me an old valve cover and get these things adjusted. Thanks for the help.

I was hoping the hot was not the way to do it. MESSY. Oh well.

 

[offshore]

Thanks guys. I have heard the hot adjustment is the way to go. I guess I will see if I can get me an old valve cover and get these things adjusted. Thanks for the help.

I was hoping the hot was not the way to do it. MESSY. Oh well.

running is never the way to go! hot adj. is usally for solid lifter cams. ( because hot you can get at least.005" diff. from cold and even then they usually give a cold adj.too.)ie: adj. valves to .025 cold/.020 hot this does not mean running! it means that this is where it will run for heat comp. hyd. lifters are heat compensated any way.solid lifters can't be adj. while running. do it the right way. not running. if you do it running and havn't done them before you'll start ? yourself the engine will stall run ruff ect. unless you know what these symptions are and how the engine reacts at each 1/4 of a turn and how long to wait for the lifter to bleed down I would'nt do a running adj. and like I said this is not called a hot adj. thats for solid cam & lifters only.

 

[Tweek]

There is a great write up on www.chevyhiperformance.com I used it on mine works great! Good luck!

 

[Eddie 70]

Thanks for the Chevy Hiperformance article. Good read. I used to take this magazine. I had so many coming to the house I couldn`t read them all.