now that its been getting cold ive been noticing that my rockers are making a little bit of noise. i have 69 351w heads with stud mounted roller rockers and have been told and read a few different methods on "properly" adjusting the rockers. what i have always been told was spin the pushrod in your fingers and tighten until it stops and add a quarter turn. (which is what i did) was fine and never made noise till now. ive read about a guy putting them on a 5.0 explorer and you just tighten them to like 17 or 18 ft lbs or something like that. and in my class i am in right now, auto engine diagnostics the instructor said that the quarter turn after zero lash was just to get it close enough to run, and your supposed to run it with the covers off and loosen it up till it starts tapping, tighten until the noise iss gone and then add a quarter turn. i have no problem doing that except that i would only be able to do the driver bank because of the intake wrapping over. so long story short how do you properly adjust the rockers with this set up? thanks for any input

 

You have stud mounted rockers so they are adjustable . Don't torque them down . You can adjust them with it running but its hard to do with the intake in the way . I set mine with the motor off . Turn the crank over by hand till the valves are closed & the lifter is on the flat part of the cam, then adjust that cylinder ,then do the same to the rest of the cylinders . The manufacturer of the rockers should be able to give you the valve lash specs , if i reamember right mine was 3/4 of a turn after contact ?? . Don't forget to tighten the lock nuts on the rockers ...Lew

 

yeah mine were half a turn after contact the comp cams pro gold or something like that

 

well now i gotta figure out what brand there were then my old boss gave them to me. they wee brand new but pretty old. he said they were for a mechanical cam he had because 8 are red 8 are blue for making it easier to determine which are for intake exhuast since they have different lash specs. i hink the brand was etched on them, gotta see. thanks forthe info guys

 

Yeah no problem . Hydraulic lifter cams don't have to be set as precise as solid lift cams , usally 1/2 to 1 turn of lifter preload is good ....

 

well maybe ill just start witht he guess and check then. is the difference in specs between brands (1/2 turn to 1 full turn) just because of the type of studs on the studs, like if they are coarse or fine threads, or is it just a difference in the rockers themselves. i dont really see how the rocker can make the difference since they are all basically the same besides the types or rollers and material ect.

 

ok well i just put in a new set of vavle springs on this thing with the heads on the truck, pain in the but by the way, but when i got her running again i could hear one rocker ticking in there a bit but it went away after she warmed up. i gave them a half turn after contact this time, but could this be a wore out lifter just taking a while to pump up or is it normal for it to stop ticking once warm if i have one a little to loose?