My bascially stock '92.....

The factory service manual says put the engine at TDC #1, adjust valve #s blah blah blah...rotate one turn and adjust the rest of them.

My question arises in that the manual says to remove all the lash, so that the push rod won't rotate, then turn the nut one full turn, or 360 degrees. That seems excessive to me. Is that right?

I'm working on it now, but will check back in a while.

Cheers!
W

 

giving you a bump as i'm interested in this answer to

 

The extra turn is to center the lifter plunger in it's bore, although I've found that 1 full turn is sometimes too much. 3/4 to 1/2 is usually sufficient.

 

Spinning the pushrod is not a good idea, you could be too tight before the pushrod won't spin. I take the pushrod and very carefully move it up and down while tightening the adjustment nut. Right at the point where you can't move it up & down is where you stop, THEN put the additional 1/2 to 1 turn on the nut. It might take you a few times to get this just right but it is way more accurate than spinning the pushrod.

 

OK guys, here's the poop since I just finished my test drive after putting it back together. And there's more to this than a simple valve adjustment.

1) I did it exactly as the service manual said, and it's running beautifully. I can now get a spin out of second gear (with ASR off), and I couldn't before. My assumption is that it was the plugs that were replaced. The old ones had a .035 gap when they should have had a .050. I used the AC/Delco plugs.

2) The first round of adjustments with #1 @ TDC, I adjusted them from where they were cuz the rods spun. But after I reread the service manual, I realized it said to back off the nut until they spun freely (I did so till the rocker arm would wiggle back and forth), then tighten it up till the lash was removed. So the second set of adjustments I did just that.....backed off till the rocker arm rocked back and forth, then I tightened it till it wouln't spin, then put one full turn on it. And the difference between spin and no spin is like an eighth of a turn or less on the nut, so don't overdo it. I went back and redid the first set the same way.

3) Some of you may remember a post I put up somewhere around the beginning of the year about a noise I had at start up. Like a soft metallic tapping sound that would go away after about 3 or 4 minutes. Well, I'm not sure this is related, but when I went to back off the #7 exhaust nut, the freakin' stud unscrewed instead of the nut coming off!! This was the area the ticking was coming from too. So I went ahead and pulled the stud all the way out, cleaned it off (the block side threads were clean), put some Locktite on it, and screwed it back in nice and tight (like I do my fiance, only without the Loctite ). I then put the rocker arm back on and adjusted it per the service manual. Guess what.....no more noise. Again, I don't know if it was the adjustment or the stud, but between the two it's not ticking any more.

Anyway, if any of you guys want the details of what the service manual says to do, PM me with a fax number and I'll send you a copy.

Life is once again good!!!

Cheers!
W