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I have a 302 year 1973 I thought it was hydraulic lifter, but I don't think it is so. It seems like the rocker arm is tightened completely, and there are no adjustment options.
I can't see much in your pictures but if there is no adjustment it has to be hydraulic. and yes they'd be tightened all the way down because the lifter does your adjusting. .
Hydraulic lifters require a preload , if you're having problems you may have to check it and correct it.
Yes, most likely a '73 302 was a non-adjustable valvetrain. Kind of nice actually, as long as everything is in good shape. Just turn them down and set to something minimal like 28lbs of torque (but don't quote me on that without verification!) and done.
They still recommend you do it in a sequence so that there is less stress on the simple pressed-in studs (not the best idea, but it did work for millions of engines over bazillions of miles.
There is still a "check" you can perform when doing this. You turn the nut to zero lash then count the number of turns to stop. It should fall within a small range, but if so, you're gold because there's quite some leeway in most hydraulic lifters.
Oh, and thanks for posting up the casting codes for the head too. I don't know anything about them, but someone will be able to decipher to make sure they're '73's and are indeed supposed to be non-adjustable.
But you can tell just by looking at the pedestals and rockers.
I have a 302 year 1973 I thought it was hydraulic lifter, but I don't think it is so. It seems like the rocker arm is tightened completely, and there are no adjustment options.
No 302 had adjustable rockers except the Boss. Just wind them down till they stop and torque to spec. The engine can be in any position to do this. That's all their is to it.
That's all there is to torqueing them, but it doesn't mean the preload is correct if adjusting your valves was your goal .
If the parts are stock and installed valve height is stock preload was done at the design stage when pushrod length was selected. There is no adjustable preload, torquing to spec is the preload.
Just AS all you guys told mee it vás hydralic lifters, what do you recommend me to do take the lifters out then take the piston out of the lifter clean it indside and put it together again, and then use the old lifters. Or do i have to buy new lifters. If i have to buy new what type and with are the Best.
I haven’t told you i started this operation because i have a tikking noise on one of the cylindre, most noise when the engine was cold, when it became hot the noise disappeared a little
I have a 302 year 1973 I thought it was hydraulic lifter, but I don't think it is so. It seems like the rocker arm is tightened completely, and there are no adjustment options.
2J15 = Head cast September (J) 15, 1972 (2).
Since historically new vehicles are introduced in September of the previous year, this head would have been installed on a 1973, possibly other years after 1973 as well.
I haven’t told you i started this operation because i have a tikking noise on one of the cylindre, most noise when the engine was cold, when it became hot the noise disappeared a little
If you had mentioned that I would have been among the first to recommend snake-oil (engine oil additives) before spending time breaking it down and replacing parts.
Depending on the condition, age and mileage of the engine, often a ticking lifter or three can be cleaned up with the solvents in the additives. Has worked for me on multiple engines. On my Bronco I got another 30k miles or so out of them before the ticking came back (still just a small amount though) and I just decided to give the engine a valve job and new lifters.
No rebuild needed and in both situations things improved immensely. Especially in the oil consumption department. I was using a ton of oil when I first bought the vehicle, but after about 5 or 6 thousand miles of new oil and additive use, not only did the ticking go away, but my oil use went down to what I would consider new for even a new engine of that vintage.
Worked for me. If you have to go through this again, maybe give that a try too.
Walk into any parts store and there is a wall full of cans and bottles with labels fairly shouting out in their best sales-person's voice that you need to "buy me because I can fix anything and you'll be a manly man for the rest of your life. But only if you keep buying me!" Or words to that effect.
Just kidding, but only sort of. There are all the usual suspects from Berryman's, Justice Brothers, Rislone, Valvoline, private label stuff, etc.
The types you want for this type of job would be the thin solvents, rather than the thick viscosity modifiers like STP or Motor Honey and the like. But anything that says on the bottle that it "quiets noisy lifters, frees sticky rings, cleans oil passages" or anything along those lines is the stuff.
I usually change my oils at 5,000 miles or more, but when I get a noisy, smokey engine I typically put new oil in, add the cleaners, then run it for maybe 2,000 miles and change it again and continue adding the additive(s) for the next couple of oil changes. Then back to normal.
Normally too, you want to be careful how quickly you clean an engine when you don't know the condition of the deposits inside. You don't really want to add cleaners to an engine that has years of abusive lack of oil changes, overheating and has built up a heavy load of burned on oil and strange foul smelling gunk. Those you want to clean manually first, then let the additives clean up the small stuff. You really don't want the big stuff floating around in your engine.
But in your case, you're already inside the engine so can easily see that it's in reasonably good shape. So the cleaners are right up your alley.
There are those that still say they're evil snake oils and you should never use them. And I can't argue some of their points. Some are simply spouting their grandfathers biases, while others have actually had bad experiences with them. But my experiences have all been totally positive.
My own '71 Bronco's 302 was 5 years old and only had 68k miles on it when I bought it. It also burned and lost oil like it was going out of style, to the tune of a quart about every 300-500 miles. In fact, when I went to pick it up we checked the oil and it was not even registering. Took 4qts to reach the tip of the dipstick! So out of 6, I maybe had 1 to 1.5 qts running.
Engine ran rough, smoked, leaked and the lifters ticked like crazy. After that treatment I described above the engine was quiet, ran smooth, no longer smoked at all and used about a half-quart in 5,000 miles. Also passed smog checks back when I had to do them in the early days.
I can't tell you which brands I used because I just chose what looked good on the shelf or was on sale that week.
Sold the engine with 175,000 miles on it for $250. running to a guy who needed it for a temporary runner while he was building up his custom engine.
Still only used about a quart in 4,000 to 5,000 miles. So not too shabby.
To paraphrase, "snake-oil been beddy beddy good to me."
In your case though, with the engine out and this far opened up, I'd be sorely tempted to replace the cam and lifters and valve springs and give it a valve job or more modern heads.
It's hard to say otherwise, unless the budget just does not allow. Been there, lived that too.
But if it's in the budget I'd almost always opt for the more modern and better cam technology.
