Installed Chebbie rockers and new lifters on my '79 today.

Installed the rockers and lifters, torqued to 20 ft lbs (according to Haynes manual for the '79) and fired it right up. Nice and quiet once the lifters pumped. Not a major increase in power, but I think I gained some torque.

That's the condensed version of the 7 hour learning experience.

At first I tried the rockers without the lifters, but they never tightend enough, so I added two 5/16 washers for better adjustment, adjusted according to 1 turn pass zero lash according to the dizzy rotor being at TDC on each corresponding cylinder, but they would work loose within minutes and all the nuts were loose enough to remove by hand. Tried adjusting them on the fly, but there was only 1/4 turn between clacking or over-tightening and they still worked loose after a few minutes.

Replaced the lifters by trying to work them out with a magnet. A very slow and tedious project. My BIL suggested using a pick to pull them out. I don't have one, so I took a jig head and made a pic to pull them out. While trying to yankout a lifter, the hook slipped off the needlenose pliers, did two turns in the air, and jumped right down an oil galley, landing with a *tink* on the bottom of the oil pan. Broke my magnet trying to fish out the hook from the oilpan, so I headed to the parts store to get a heavier duty magnet. While there I saw a lifter removal tool for $8. Buy the tool! it'll save lots of time and aggravation. Couldn't fish out the jighead, so I'll hopefully drag it out the next oil change on my magnetic drain plug. Finished removing the lifters, installed the new ones, inspected and installed the pushrods, torqued the rocker nuts to 20 ft lbs, and fired it up for a test. Ran good and smooth. Buttoned it up and test drove. Project complete other than fishing out the jighead at the next oilchange.

I've seen several methods listed for adjusting vlaves on these trucks. According to my Haynes the 79 is the only year you can simply torque the rocker nuts to 17-23 ft lbs. I imagine most early heads will work the same way. The studs are designed to have the nut bottom on the threads. Must be why a lot of folks complain about loose rockers not staying tight or having to add wahsers to get proper lash. Try torquing them first.


Things I learned:

-The Chebbie 6 rockers are indeed a direct bolt-on.

-simply torque the rocker nuts to 17-23 ft lbs when installing teh rockers. No need to run the damper at adjust to zero lash plus 1 turn.

-if after installing the rockers, everything is still loose, replace the lifters. Heck, for $40, just replace the lifters anyway.

-Buy the $8 tool to replace the lifters, dont ever, ever try to use a jig head to remove lifters.

-If I planned to replace lifters and rockers from the outset, and knew I only needed to torque the rocker nuts, and I had the lifter tool, this could have been a quick 2 hour project max.

 

thanks for all the info, this has been on my "maybe to-do" list.......

in the past i've bought special nuts for rocker arms to keep them tight. do you have room to "double nut" them? just a thought.

so is the idle the same? i want to keep my idle smooooooooth.

 

Nice writeup!

I'm in the process of installing the chebbie rockers, new lifters, and new pushrods on my '76. I had originally planned on just replacing the rockers, but I had a valve that just would get tight enough. Most of the others were fine - I never had to shim any of them.

I'm not sure if the "torque" method will work on all cylinder heads - I know that my adjustable stud-type seemed fine with the regular 1/2 to 1 turn past zero lash method. I'm replacing the lifters so that I know I've got them adjusted right. I'd be afraid just to torque them down in case I'd bottom out a lifter and bend a pushrod.

Anyone know exactly the different setups Ford made for the heads and which years do what? I know the newer ones were the "non-adjustable" type, and that there were at least two different older style stud setups.

(By the way, I did buy that lifter removal tool in advance before attempting to get the lifters out - I can't imagine trying to do it any other way!)

 

From the information I've gathered, the torque method is only for the '79.

I did have enough thread to double nut, but I probably would have been better served to buy new lock nuts instead. I'm not sure the '79 even has locknuts as I could remove them with my fingers once I backed them off teh stud a few turns.

Idle quality was the same, though I did have to adjust the idle and idle mixture after the swap.

Sure is nice to drive the truck and not listen to all the valve clatter. The thing sounded like a sewing machine before with the Tick TIck Tick. Now it idles nice and quiet.

I'm pleased with the results.

 

what were the chev rockers out of and what did you tell the parts store when you orderd them?

 

Info on Chebby rocker install here:

http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11348