I have been out for a couple years, and am gonna try to make a race or two this year,so I was cleaning my motor up and decided to pull the valve cover off and just see how dirty things were...while doing this I checked the valve lash, and was suprised to find that i had none. This is a motor from a fairly well known builder with one race since freshen up. The valves are not being held open (with the motor cold anyways)both pushrods will spin freely, but i cant get any feeler guage in. Getting it freshened up again isint really in the budget,So my question is should i set them to around 3 thousands, which is where i would guess they should be? And if i do set them, is there any thing i should look out for, iv set valves on cars and on flat heads but not these motors yet...is there a torque setting for the adjuster, do they have locktite? Any other tips? Thanks in advance
"0" valve lash animal
- Thread starter madmax
- Start date
50 -70 in lb on the set screw. Blue loctite on both the adjuster and the set screw is fine. It is certainly stylish to set valves at zero but giving .002 will not hurt you. Having the pushrods spin free is a good way to be certain that they are not to tight. If after sitting so long you see rust on your rockers and inside the rocker cover take it apart and clean everything. The cylinder could be rusted as well so a few squirts of oil into the spark plug hole couldn't hurt. Take your carb apart, thoroughly clean it set the float and run it. You may want to check with your builder on float level he recommends for his carb set up. If you can't get an answer, set it at .850 - .870 and that should work. Welcome back.
Gonzari
Member
Under normal conditions, heat-related cylinder expansion (vertically) is a reality. The adverse effect to that, varying degrees (no pun intended) of effect on cam timing because of increased valve lash. After a knowledgeable builder profiles your cam, follow their recommendation as to what is the ideal lash for THAT motor. Zero lash just might be the best setting for that engine.