[MightyMach]

well, the clicking is getting louder now, so I am going to adjust the valvs. (not to mention the drag strip on the 13th.

Question is this. When I take off the valve covers, and bring up the # 1 piston, will this make oil pump through the system? Seems to me that it would. If I changed my oil at the same time as adjusting the valves, I could eliminate this, but would I need to reprime my pump? And would this even work?

Also, just to make sure I have this all right is this the way it is done.

Bring # 1 to TDC slip the (damn what is the name of the tool

) for .028 (if that is what my cam calls for) then tighten the "nut". Then go to the Exhasut side do the same. Then go to # 3 and do the same?? Correct me if I am wrong please. Its been 6 months since the motor was first put together, and I did not do it then, just watched it get done.

Thanks a lot!

Jeff Given

 

[Brian M]

If you are cranking it by hand, you wont have to worry at all about the oil, the engine isnt cranking enough to build up pressure. When I did it, since I have a sloped driveway, I just put it in reverse and pushed the car to crank the engine over. Worked good for me. If you have an auto, you'd probably have to crank it over with the starter, and a little bit of cranking doesnt pump alot of oil. I did it with the car running once, wasnt a big deal. When my car is idling, it didnt pump enough oil to get it all over the place, but it did get hot pretty fast, and I burned a few fingers.

 

[Hottarod]

Its the feeler gauge. Make sure you know what your hot lash spec on the adjustment is supposed to be for your cam. The best method for adjusting lash is;
0. warm the motor up first then shut it off and remove the valve covers
1. bump the motor over while watching the rocker arms move starting with cylinder 1
2. when the exhaust valve just starts to open then set the lash on the intake rocker
3. bump the motor over more by tapping the clip to the solenoid while watching the intake valve
4. when the intake valve opens all the way and then starts to close adjust the corresponding exhaust valve for that cylinder
5. go to the next cylinder and repeat until you are done

Use an aligator clip from the + on your battery to the solenoid and just bump the motor over and watch the rocker arms move. Line up your rocker arms with the exhaust manifold ports so you know which rocker is for the exhaust and which is for the intake. Work one side of the motor and then the other to prevent confusion from setting in. To adjust the lash back your nut off a little, put your feeler gauge in and slowly crank down on the nut while sliding the feeler gauge back and forth between the valve tip and the rocker tip. Tighten it down until you feel drag on the feeler gauge but stop just before the feeler gauge won't move.

I add a step at this point. I rotate the motor over a few times with the starter then go back and double check my adjustments. Occasionally, I will find one that I didn't get quite tight enough doing this.

 

[Kcode]

On all of my motors I have the balancers all marked in 90 degree incrememnts. When I adjust the valves I start at TDC, do #1 then rotate 90 degrees around the firing order. Gotta rotate the crank around twice to get all cylinders but the chances of missing a cylinder are reduced.