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I took my valve cover off and some of my rocker arms were loose. I thought maybe they just weren't on as tight as they were supposed to be so I torqued them down to spec (23ft lbs) but they are still loose. I can kind of move them side to side a little. This isn't normal is it? I took some of them off and it doesn't look like they're worn much. Could my lifters be bad? Any thoughts would help. Thanks.
If it runs ok I wouldn't worry about it. When you torque the rockers down, you are just locking them in place. They are not adjustable and if there is some adjustment necessary it's a whole can of worms involving different pushrods or shimming.
When you're torqing the rockers down on a hydraulic cam engine all you are doing is tightening them down to the studs at a set torque. Unlike a solid cam set up where you need to tighten the rockers to specific play. Some rockers are loose for you because the either one or both the valves are closed, allowing the rocker to move a little because it is no longer under pressure from the valve spring. With the open valves those rockers are under pressure so will not move. So depending on where the engine is in it's cycle, on some cylinders bothe rockers will be under pressure, on some neither will be under pressure and on others one of each, hence the apparent randomness of loose and tight rockers.
--Heaven will be inherited by every man who has Ford in his soul--
Just a question. You said valve cover not covers. Is it the 6cyl? I seem to recall there was an access plate by the lifters to adjust them. I'm probably wrong so all you 300I6 fans feel free to whoop up on me now.
Ducks and runs for cover.
BROKEBRONCO
84 Bronco 351HO/C-6/208/10.25 Rear/D44TTB Soon to have D60 Front/NP435
86 F250 351HO/C6/10.25 Soon to have a front axle and the ZF tranny
The rockers are not adjustable,if it doesn`t make any noise when running its just normal wear that causes the lifters to bleed down a little when not running.
You need new rocker arms. They are the non-ajustable sled fulcrum style rockers. The fulcrums have little square bumpouts on each side, these are to postion the rocker arm in the center of valve stem. those are worn out and allowing your arms to slop side to side. there is no adjustment or torqing that can fix it, just replace them.
start engine,shut down,take valve cover off,start engine again,find noisy one then ,shut down, then take off rocker arm then push on push rod down into lifter if its spongey not solid its bad