Hi, I have a 400 engine that was totally rebuilt about 5 years ago. At that time, I told the builder that the engine will not be running for quite a long time while I redo the rest of the truck. So, when he reassembled, everything internally was coated / dipped in motor oil / STP oil treatment and he left all the valve train "loose" (didn't adjust the final clearance of the roller rockers / push rod so the valve springs didn't fatigue). I'm getting to the point where this needs to be done as the body is finally at the body shop. I've done some reading on how to adjust roller rockers but have a couple questions. 1) Should I prime the oil system with a drill / long extension to "pump up" the hydraulic lifters or just start adjusting rocker clearance without doing this? 2) if the lifters need to have oil in them, do you have to repressurize the oiling system during the rocker adjusting process? Can you adjust both rockers on a given cylinder when the piston is coming up on TDC or is it better to go through and adjust each cylinder rockers seperatly, ie all E rockers then all I rockers?

Sorry for the long book - will appreciate all replies.
Thanks

 

Unless it was changed over to adjustable rockers you just tighten then down. I wouldn't prime the pump till you are ready to start it. Just run the pump till you feel the oil psi come up. Excessive priming just washes all the assembly oil away. I would also put some engine/cam breakin oil additive in.

 

mark a - thanks for the response! So the engine / cam breakin oil is something different than STP Oil treatment? Is this just added into the engine oil in the oilpan?

 

I'm kind of a nut about this, but here's how I do it.
I take the cam card numbers and plot them on graph paper. Then I put the degree wheel on the crank. I determine the rotation 180 degrees from the lobe peak, turn the crank to that position, and adjust the lifter. With the lobe ramps in new high performance cams, I don't trust the old methods.
This takes a while, but I'm old and patient.