i bought the comp cams 1.6 roller rockers and i cannot find a method to properly adjust these, i have them all on, the intake is on for the most part....im afriad the intake has a vacuum leak under the plenum which im going to address following the rocker situation....does anyone recommend any way or means to adjust these roller rockers....i either have where they are too tight and no compression to fire up or to lose and it shakes and lopes...im trying to get it steady and running smooth...thanks in advance

 

Here's how I do it, copied directly from an old thread. Everybody who has seen me do this can do it themselves. Anybody I've ever tried to explain it to hasn't been able to do it.

I've never been able to adjust a set of rockers and then set the polylock and actually have it hold. Sure the adjustment will be fine but it will loosen itself within a month at best, far less than optimal. You simply cannot get enough torque on the set screw to lock it down, at least I haven't been able to do so and feel comfortable about not breaking something.

As such what I like to do is get the rockers very close to where I want them and then tighten the inner lock until I can't turn it anymore, but not try to really tighten it. Then you put the wrench back on the outer nut and tighten it down. It'll only go about a quarter of a turn and then it'll stop. It has the same effect as tigthening the allen nut, except you can get a lot more leverage on it without fear of breaking something and it will not back out. I adjusted my rockers this way when I put my 1.7's back on it years ago and haven't had any trouble. Same method on Brian's car, his brother Todd, etc.

Ok, so now you're asking what's the deal, should work any time. Well it might, but then you have to know the method for getting it "close." It's so simple that it's ingenius. Make sure the cam is on the base circle, and place the rocker on the stud. Loosen the allen nut entirely, take it out if you wish. Screw the polylock onto the rocker stud with your fingers and tighten it down as far as you can without any tools. This is the key, there are no tools, only use your fingers until you can't turn it anymore. Then insert the allen nut and do as I mentioned above. Now that may sound very unscientific but it works every time, as long as the engine has been run recently. My only explanation is that when there is oil in the lifter it is harder to compress than when the lifter is dry. If the lifter is dry "finger tight" is far enough down that when you give it that extra quarter turn or so that it actually bottoms out. When the lifter is full it's perfect every time.

After fighting with eventual self loosening rockers for years I finally came up with this method and have not once had to go back and so much as touch a rocker, provided the car has run recently. Likewise every time I've tried to do this on a "new" motor, or "dry" lifters it's been too tight. In every case though if I got them so loose that they were noisy the engine would run just fine. Once the lifters pumped up I could adjust them again with the exact same method and it was perfect. The engine doesn't have to get up to operating temp, not even close, just enough to get oil flow through the lifters.

There are lots of ways to adjust rockers and some people will say my method is crap, but I know it works for me. If there's one thing I've learned about rockers it's that everybody has their own method, everybody thinks that everybody else is wrong and that they are correct. And the truth to it is, they're exactly right. Do what works for you!