Birdstheword

ok , so im adjusting my valves on my 88 lo3 . book says cylinder 1 @ TDC on compression stroke then adjust 1-2-5-7 intake , then 1- what ever i forgot but anywho im only doing the drivers side after adjusting the intake and exhaust valve when cylinder 1 is @ TDC on compression stroke it says turn crank shaft 360* for #6 cylinder TDC the adjust rest of intake and exhaust valves . well i keep on trying this but when it comes to adjusting #3 intake after the 360* turn it is open and therefore compressed , so my question is can i do one cylinder at a time by watching the intake valve open and close then keep on turning crank shaft until harmonic balancer aligns with the 0* mark wich indicates that cylinder is @ tdc , can i do this ?

AlkyIROC

I have a starter bump button under the hood so I just do one cylinder at a time. When one valve is open fully, the other is closed.

Doing the half valves at #1 TDC and the other half at #6 TDC will also work. You just need to make sure you know that #1 is at TDC on the compression stroke. You can watch your #1 intake valve open and close. Right after it closes, the timing mark on the balancer will be coming up to the pointer. When it's at the pointer, #1 will be at TDC or at least close enough to do a valve adjustment. Using whatever method you chose to determine that #1 is on TDC compression stroke, the sequence to do the adjustment is.

#1 TDC, adjust these valves
INT 1,2,5,7
EXH 1,3,4,8

#6 TDC, adjust these valves
INT 3,4,6,8
EXH 2,5,6,7

If in doubt, loosen all the valves and start from scratch. With only a single mark on the balancer, you only have 2 reference points to adjust the valves. With an aftermarket balancer which will have degrees marked on it as well as 90, 180 and 270, you could do each cylinder one at a time by watching the timing marks.

Birdstheword

ok , but to make things more clear , can i do one cylinder at a time ? i.e turn the crankn shaft until the intake opens and closes then turn the crankshaft until the notch on the harmonic balancer and the 0* mark are aligned then i know im @ TDC . then i would adjust the #1 intake valve and exhaust valve and so on to the rest of the other cylinders just making sure that the intake valve has opened and closed and that specific cylinder is @ tdc , can i do that ? since both intake and exhaust are closed .

Viprklr

iTrader: (5)

Yes you can but that would take a lot longer.

RiV

Same way I did mine... for the most part as soon as the intake lifter drops I set the intake and exhaust.... then #8 dropped and set that one. Basically everytime I turned the crank another set of lifters were both closed so I set them as I went. I guss the outcome for me was a running engine... but I'm finding that I'm going to have to rerun the lifters again while its running to get them perfect.

AlkyIROC

Using the timing mark on the balancer will only tell you if #1 or #6 are at TDC. The rest of the cylinders you'll have to guess at.

Doing one cylinder at a time, you don't even have to do them in the firing order. All you need to do is watch when the intake closes on each cylinder then adjust the valves on that cylinder. Doing one bank at a time will just mean that you need to rotate the engine over a lot more. That's why I have a remote start button under the hood. I adjust the valves on one side of the engine, then the other just by bumping the engine over with the starter. My cylinder compression and valve spring pressures are too high to simply bar the engine over from the balancer.

Adjusting valves with hydraulic lifters isn't that hard but some people still don't get it right. With the lifter on the base circle of the cam, you adjust the rocker to zero lash. I simply wiggle the pushrod until the rocker makes it snug. Some people say to spin the pushrod but even if you've gone past zero lash, you can still spin the pushrod. Once at zero lash, tighten the rocker 1/2 turn. That sets the lifter preload but the lifter will leak down making it feel like the lifter is loose again. Don't try tightening it up again. That's just how hydraulic lifters work.

Birdstheword

ok so i got the car to run @ kind of a rough idle and my #8 exhaust valve rocker was clicking so i tightened it until the clicking went away and the rocky idle went away alos , then i got curious so "while the engine was running " i wanted to make sure that all valves "1,2,5,7" were set correctly and not too tight or too loose so i started @ #1 , i loosend the xhaust valve and then the rocky idle came back and so i tightened then the clicking went away but then the engine sounded like it was gasping for air " dont know why but i felt kinda bad for it " so then i shut off the engine and ever since then it wont start , so i went back and re-did my valves and still no start , what might have gone wrong ?

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

When you re-adjusted,you tightened ONLY to the point of no ticking?What I mean is,did you give them an extra turn or 2 to make sure they were tight enough? DON"T!! You MAY end up with bent pushrods or worse,flat cam lobe(s).
Was the motor warmed up?
Is this a new cam & lifters? Roller or hydrolic?

Birdstheword

no its the stock cam and lifters , and they are the roller type , anywho i gave them just a little extra push to make sure they were on there tight , but not tight enough to where piston meats valve and then we get a big clunk or maybe a snap , so no , so correct me if im wrong , tighten the valves until the clicking goes away right ?

rjmcgee

E.O.I.C.

One cylinder at a time, need a way to bump the engine over from under the hood. Only takes a couple minutes to run them all.


Exhaust valve openning set Intake valve.

Intake valve closing set exhaust valve.

Birdstheword

i know how to do it , im using a breaker bar and a socket , i just need to know when to stop tightening , that is once the engine is running, do i stop tightening when the clicking goes away , or to i tighten them until it stops clicking and then a half turn or 3/4 turn or what , thats all i want to know or should i do it like this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSR36fmBR6M

Guest

If the engine is running, tighten the rocker until it stops clicking, that is zero lash. Do that to all valves, shut the engine off. With the engine off, tighten all of them at least a half a turn. There is a lot of disagreement as to how much, 1/2, 3/4, 1... 1/2 is enough to put the proper preload on the lifters. You can pick what you want to do from there. If you tighten the valves beyond zero lash while running, the engine will often stumble for a bit because the valve is going to be partially open until the lifter leaks down enough to let it shut all the way.

Birdstheword

oh ok cool , yeah i kinda dropped the ball on that one , i adjusted a valve , lost compression , turned the car off , wont start ,re did my valves and still no start .

astrosurfer

Personally I tried the method of doing it with #1 tdc first then #6 tdc.
I had issues with it which were my own fault really....however I was not totally onboard that what I was doing was necessarily correct.
Instead what I ended up using was the opposites method. i.e. #1 inlet fully open adjust #6 inlet and so forth down the line.
Same procedure for exhaust valves.
This way makes most sense to me because I know that whilst one valve is fully open...then it's opposite has to be fully on the bottom of the cam lobe.
I know alot if not most of the guys here will do the first method by ritual and swear by it....and that's fine. Personally I had problems with it and therefore I use the oppposites method.


Now if I were you .... my next step would be loosening the valves to a flapping state, but not too loose.
What I did recently was 3 full turns loose and then start from scratch.
I did turn over the motor to try and make sure the lifters were good and full so as to not get a bad seating if that were at all possible.
the motor actually did run like that...all be it poorly.
After the lash it was very quiet.....I then gave an extra half turn only.

A side note on this....It's possible that the lash might not be the problem. While I was working on mines the first time I ever lashed them....the motor dies a weird and sudden death. Turned out to be nothing to do with what I had done...The ignition module had just crapped out.
Found that out AFTER I threw a coil, plugs, leads at it.
They were going to be replaced...just were not a priority at the time.

Best of luck with the problem.

Birdstheword

yeah , i plan on upgrading my whole ignition , but im leaving that for later , my ignition is still syock and getting by , except for the stock coil wich took a dump on me so i went msd , after that no problems , except for now " valve adjustments" thats about it , so yeah ... im going to try what mad max said , et the engine to run , remove all valve lash , shut off engine and then half a turn , btw im doing one cylinder @ a time , i just watch the intake valve open and close , then i keep on turning the crankshatf until the balancer notch aligns with zero , and i do that with each individual piston . thaks for the help though , im going to work on it right know , will be back with pdates later on today .

astrosurfer

If you do it like you describe....I fear you will not be doing it right.
I'm sure there is a way to do each individual piston that doesn't require serious messing around. but it's not how you describe.
AFIK The only time the mark should be TDC (0 degrees) would be for adjusting #1 and #6.
How can you tell from the harmonic balancer when #4 is at TDC?. You would need more timing marks.
This was covered in an earlier reply.
Wish you luck with it still.
you should follow the advice from the guys here about the lash. They know their stuff.

Birdstheword

well , i tried the books , and no luck , the whole #1 cylinder @ TDC then adjust valves blah blah blah then rotate 360* and adjust blah blah blah didnt work because when i roated the crank shaft 360* it told me to adjust a valve that was open so i just stop trying that method and went with a common sense method . when one valve is open the other is closed right , i.e watching the intake valve open and close , as soon as it closes you know its on the compression stroke , so then you would keep on rotating the crankshaft until the notch aligns @ TDC , "at least thats how i see it " i think stephen does it that way " one cylinder @ a time , but anywho i will try the valve lash recomendations on here " some of them " but as for now , i have a dead battery , till' tomorrow i will find out if it works or not .

Guest

The only time the notch is aligned at TDC is for the #1 cylinder and the #6 cylinder. If you rotate it to TDC you will quite likely be off. Dont do that.

If you had a valve open doing the factory method, you were on #6 TDC not #1 the first time around.

Birdstheword

ok say , you are right and im doing it wrong , but if a valve is close its @ the heel of the cam lobe right , therefore thats the moment for possible valve adjusment , no ?

astrosurfer

Theoretically you are correct about the valve being closed and can be adjusted.
If you do it right you will get no problems. If you don't get it on the base of the cam they could be too tight and remain open.
But the crank should not be set to TDC for every cylinder.
What you are wanting to use is the EOIC method I think.
We don't want you to bend up your valves or worse.
I hear what you say about watching this one open or that one close. But there's no continuing to rotate the crank.
I hope you get it right and get running again.
Good luck

Birdstheword

yeah , well we'll see still waiting on the battery .

Birdstheword

SHE LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a bit smokey and rich , but my guess is a timing issue and found out that i have an exhaust leak wich might also cause it to run rich , other than that i just got minimal clicking on cylinder #1 , it got to dark to do anything , so tomorrow i will continue valve adjustment , but for now she stars, weir dthing though @ start up i get a very loud hissing sound , kinda like a vaccum leak , " but i just replaced all the vaccum lines" then it goes away , and im thinking thats when the iac kicks in and when it goes away , it kinda boggs down a little eventually coming to a steady idle with white smoke