Preferred method for setting valve lash
- Thread starter bwell
- Start date
I'm with Don on this.
On a strictly street engine,and I recently went over this with Tom M.,I like to adjust the valves with the engine cold.I know that you typically reduce the lash .003-.004 tighter,but there's nothing wrong with using the hot settings for a cold engine.The problem is that if you start with a hot engine,by the time you get one cover off and the valves on that side done,the engine has cooled down a bunch,and you've still got one side left to do.Accuracy anyone???
Are you guys talking solid lifter or hydrolic? On my solid lifter motors I do them cold and with hydrolic I do them running until the smoke from oil burning off the manifolds does me in
No way will I ever adjust valves with the engine running. Old school and it worked but what a mess. Hydraulic cams are very nearly idiot proof Hot or cold. Very forgiving. I have been using eo/ic for years. Cam manufacturers lash settings should not be taken as the holy grail. You can tune engine performance with lash. I know, I've done it.
55Brodie
Well Known Member
Anyone ever tried this method for solid lifters? Worked so well for me on my (gasp) Y-block Ford that I threw away my feeler blades. The Chevy math will be different.
http://www.y-blocksforever.com/tech/html/valvelash.html
http://www.y-blocksforever.com/tech/html/valvelash.html
No,but it makes perfect sense.
I haven't needed to adjust the hydraulic lifters yet on either of my "W" engines. But, if and when I do, I think I have a plan. I agree 100% with others. With the engine running, oil escapes and burns. What a mess. So, what I'm going to do, is take an old valve cover, measure and cut a hole where each adjusting nut is, just big enough to accommodate that size socket and adjust the valves. I would do one side at a time and hopefully keep all the oil inside the cover. This isn't my idea. I read about it someplace, but it sounds good to me. So, what say you all, Carmine.
63409impala
Well Known Member
I run Gibbs 15w50 oil.
'Bird' Johnson
Member
what the heck is eo/ic?
Exhaust opening, intake closing.
425hp409
Member
I have a solid lifter 454 LS6 cam in my GMC Sprint. I cut the top off of a distributor cap and tap the engine over watching the rotor as it goes to each cylinder in the firing order, adjust those valves, then go to the next one. After a full revolution of the rotor, I am done. I do it cold. This can be done for W engines also. I used to adjust small block hydraulics with the engine running, after installing a valve cover with slot cut out over the rocker nuts, minimal mess,
Brilliant! Just so happens I have extra caps!