Zero lash Cont.

As recomended I TDC'd each cylinder(chey 6 cycl.) and tightened out the play on
the pushrod, plus about 5/8 rev. on the nut. I rotated the engine by hand and
rechecked the play. Most had play again so I repeated the tightening a second
time. I spun the engine once more and still had to tighten a couple of valves
because of play.
Now, my question is......did I over do it? When I check it again tomorrow

How to burn out hydraulic valves in one easy lesson....

Adjust them dry.

They are 'hydraulic' Lifters! They must be pumped up with oil to work.

I do not understand why you would listen to 'armchair "mechanics"' on
any internet group rather than believing the manual you have that
outlines the proper way to do it?

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Rojo2G wrote:
>
> As recomended I TDC'd each cylinder(chey 6 cycl.) and tightened out the play on
> the pushrod, plus about 5/8 rev. on the nut. I rotated the engine by hand and
> rechecked the play. Most had play again so I repeated the tightening a second
> time. I spun the engine once more and still had to tighten a couple of valves
> because of play.
> Now, my question is......did I over do it? When I check it again tomorrow

Mike Romain wrote

> How to burn out hydraulic valves in one easy lesson....
>
> Adjust them dry.
>
> They are 'hydraulic' Lifters! They must be pumped up with oil to
> work.

This is not correct. You can adjust a brand new set of
hydraulic lifters that don't have any oil in them quite easily
on the chevy style engines that require adjustment. I've
done hundreds of them this way. It saves all the mess of
doing it while the engine is running. You "can" do it with
the engine running, and that method works well too, but
it's simply a matter of preference. I prefer to do it once
while the engine is going back together, put the valve covers
on, and be done with it.

> I do not understand why you would listen to 'armchair "mechanics"' on
> any internet group rather than believing the manual you have that
> outlines the proper way to do it?

You are an "armchair mechanic", but many of us on here actually
do this for a living. The fact that you think that adjusting hydraulic
lifters dry is a no-no is a dead giveaway!

Ian

shiden_kai wrote:
>
> Mike Romain wrote
>
> > How to burn out hydraulic valves in one easy lesson....
> >
> > Adjust them dry.
> >
> > They are 'hydraulic' Lifters! They must be pumped up with oil to
> > work.
>
> This is not correct. You can adjust a brand new set of
> hydraulic lifters that don't have any oil in them quite easily
> on the chevy style engines that require adjustment. I've
> done hundreds of them this way. It saves all the mess of
> doing it while the engine is running. You "can" do it with
> the engine running, and that method works well too, but
> it's simply a matter of preference. I prefer to do it once
> while the engine is going back together, put the valve covers
> on, and be done with it.
>
> > I do not understand why you would listen to 'armchair "mechanics"' on
> > any internet group rather than believing the manual you have that
> > outlines the proper way to do it?
>
> You are an "armchair mechanic", but many of us on here actually
> do this for a living. The fact that you think that adjusting hydraulic
> lifters dry is a no-no is a dead giveaway!
>
> Ian

You have no clue what my qualifications are Ian.

The OP obviously does not know how to install a head or adjust hydraulic
valves.

Telling him to do it dry by 'feel' like you 'professional mechanics' do
(and I use that term 'very' loosely') in your next post is giving him
one fast lesson on how to burn out valves. He more than obviously does
'not' have the 'feel' for it so he should just do it by the book like
most 'normal' people do.

He does 'not' say they are new lifters so the spring pressure will 'not'
be the same between any two lifters and some springs could even be
collapsed a bit.

When in doubt, read the damn manual eh.

I have seen lots of folks use the 'feel' method saying they don't 'need'
to do it 'right' , only to have low power and dead heads in 6 months or
less.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Mike Romain wrote

> You have no clue what my qualifications are Ian.

Your answers to mechanical questions give me
a clue.

> The OP obviously does not know how to install a head or adjust
> hydraulic valves.

Most people that do it for the first time are in the same boat.
Everybody has to learn something for the first time.

> Telling him to do it dry by 'feel' like you 'professional mechanics'
> do (and I use that term 'very' loosely') in your next post is giving
> him one fast lesson on how to burn out valves. He more than
> obviously does 'not' have the 'feel' for it so he should just do it
> by the book like most 'normal' people do.

Ah....so you'll "burn out the valves" doing it my way, eh? The
way that I describe doing it is right out of any GM service manual
that you want to look at. Doing it manually while the engine running
is a hold over from the days when all that you had to do to get
the valve covers off was remove 4 bolts (chevy small block). The
way I describe doing it is "the" factory method. Here, I'll even
include a quote from GM's SI......

With the engine in the number 1 firing position, adjust the exhaust valves
for cylinders number 1, 3, 4, and 8 and the intake valves for cylinders
number 1, 2, 5, and 7.
1.. Turn the valve rocker arm nut counter clockwise until the valve lash
is felt in the valve pushrod.
2.. Turn the valve rocker arm nut clockwise until all the valve lash is
removed. Zero valve lash can be felt by moving the valve pushrod up and down
between your thumb and forefinger until there is no more up and down
movement of the valve push rod.
3.. When all the valve lash is removed, then turn the valve rocker arm nut
clockwise 1 additional turn (360 degrees).
> He does 'not' say they are new lifters so the spring pressure will
> 'not' be the same between any two lifters and some springs could even
> be collapsed a bit.

If he has a lifter with a collapsed spring, he has other problems....we
are talking about "all things being equal".

> I have seen lots of folks use the 'feel' method saying they don't
> 'need' to do it 'right' , only to have low power and dead heads in 6
> months or less.

FFS you are stupid....the feel method is the "factory" method...or
don't you have any reading comprehension?

Ian

shiden_kai wrote:
>
> If he has a lifter with a collapsed spring, he has other problems....we
> are talking about "all things being equal".
>

In the start of this thread he says the lash changes every time he
rotates the engine, so all things certainly aren't 'equal' now are they?

Therefore I stand by stating he should adjust them pumped up like his
book says to do and the way to do old lifters.

It isn't that freaking messy if he keeps the idle down and it is the
only 'safe' and not confusing way I know of to adjust old valves.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Mike Romain wrote:

> In the start of this thread he says the lash changes every time he
> rotates the engine, so all things certainly aren't 'equal' now are
> they?

Far more likely to be the result of his inexperience then
anything being wrong with the lifters themselves. I've performed
the manual no engine running method 99% of the time, on new/old
engines...it's always worked. The exceptions are if you have a
defective lifter, but that should be obvious.

> Therefore I stand by stating he should adjust them pumped up like his
> book says to do and the way to do old lifters.

This is a viable option, but one that a newbie can't always
figure out or perform properly either.

> It isn't that freaking messy if he keeps the idle down and it is the
> only 'safe' and not confusing way I know of to adjust old valves.

He could also use some sort of deflecting tool, something simple
like a piece of cardboard. Keep the oil from squirting all over
the place. Years ago, (you can probably still get them) there
were little clips that you could slip over each rocker arm at
the pushrod side that would deflect the oil down onto the
rocker arm so that you could adjust the valves while the engine
was running to your hearts content...without making a mess.

Ian

New lifters or used, as I recommended in the first post & in complete
agreeent with Ian, you can do them statically with absolutely no
headaches. Adjust them on the way back together with your motor, button
up the valve covers, when it's time, start the thing up, have a nice
day. Overthinking & "booklearning" theories on this board are rampant &
as some of us know, people are sometimes giving advise based on these
principals & not on actual experience. It seems the problem in this
case is either the original poster is over parinoid or shouldn't be
doing this job himself to begin with. Adjust 'em once, if done
correctly, & forget about it, go on to the next step. If he had them
adjusted then turned the thing over by hand & found play in the ones he
already had done, then he did something wrong the first time, thus
justifying my "find somebody that knows what their doing to get it done
for ya" theory. Good luck.

What happens if you have old sticky lifters that don't come all the way
back up when compressed dry like the OP 'appears' to have? (weak
springs, a dirt or varnish ring, sludge in the hole, whatever)

You can only be sure the first one is at the top because you have to
rotate the engine for the next so all lifters are moved before
adjusting.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

pater wrote:
>
> New lifters or used, as I recommended in the first post & in complete
> agreeent with Ian, you can do them statically with absolutely no
> headaches. Adjust them on the way back together with your motor, button
> up the valve covers, when it's time, start the thing up, have a nice
> day. Overthinking & "booklearning" theories on this board are rampant &
> as some of us know, people are sometimes giving advise based on these
> principals & not on actual experience. It seems the problem in this
> case is either the original poster is over parinoid or shouldn't be
> doing this job himself to begin with. Adjust 'em once, if done
> correctly, & forget about it, go on to the next step. If he had them
> adjusted then turned the thing over by hand & found play in the ones he
> already had done, then he did something wrong the first time, thus
> justifying my "find somebody that knows what their doing to get it done
> for ya" theory. Good luck.

>What happens if you have old sticky lifters that don't come all >the way back
up when compressed dry like the OP 'appears' to >have?
I'm the parnoid. I want to thank everyone whose posted I read them all and take
the advice gladly. This engine( 79'GMC, 250), I've had since new, has 250,000
mi on it, no rebuilds. There was sluge and crust on the push rods. I cleaned
them up and returned them to the same location. The head , I changed was used
out of a running but unknown engine to me. While I am trying to do it
carefully and according to direction, there can be a lot of variables that
aren't there on a low mileage engine. There is lot of experience in this
newsgroup and I thought I'd tap it.
Thank you and I appreciate everyones time and effort on this.
Rojo