adjusting solid lifters

66gtk · April 16, 2008 at 10:29 AM

I'm not a mechanic, so bear with me. I figure it's time to have my solid lifters adjusted on my '65 clone. I have no idea what the cam specs are as I don't have a cam sheet. The car has a solid lifter cam and has a much more aggressive cam than my stock K code.

What's the proper method for adjusting the lifters on this car? Can he do it without spilling oil all over the engine? How long does this typically take? My mechanic charges $100/hour so I need to figure out how to help him be efficient at this job (:

C6ZZKGT · April 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM Official Post

If you want to have your mechanic call me, I can lead him through the best way to adjust them without any oil mess. At $100 per hour he should already know how to do this. It will take less than 20 minutes to adjust them if done my way.

-Fred-

dunc289_old · April 16, 2008 at 12:12 PM

If you have not addressed the oil/zddp issue, I would urge you to do so, the higher the pressures on the valve/cam assembly, the more urgent is your need for this protection. Very high lift, high spring/seat pressures will be a candidate for failure without this stuff. Also, for those interested, ZDDP has a limited life, as the molecules break down while doing their job, and needs to be replenished as an additive.The latest from ZDDPlus is that it may leave the phosphous and zinc in the oil, but the moecules themselves have broken down. 3000 miles seems to be a must change, even with the added ZDDP. The oil industry tests their oil with very low output engines with a fraction of the pressures experienced by high performance, flat tappet setups. Thats how they can claim they have no prblems. They rig the tests to ensure passage. Comments?

Duncan

66gtk · April 16, 2008 at 12:45 PM

Hey Fred,

Thanks for the offer. Any way you can type out your instructions so that we can all benefit from the knowledge. It can also be hard to reach people via phone at mutually convenient times.

Thanks,

Troy

C6ZZKGT · April 16, 2008 at 1:46 PM Official Post

I figured out this method a long time ago. I have been using this method for over 40 years with total success. It is not in any books or online anywhere except this posting. Some books list a process where the engine is at some predetermined point and you would adjust certain intake and exhaust valves at that time. This requires entirely too much thought and the book needs to be there to read while you are doing this. On top of that that method only works for the particular firing order of the engine you are working with. My method works on all cars with adjustable rocker arms. To begin with, of course, the valve covers need to be removed. I usually assume that any valves will be loose rather than tight. If there is any chance that they are too tight then you need to loosen them all a quarter of a turn for this process to work. Usually the only reason for them to get tight would be if the valve was sinking into the seat. This happens most often with exhaust valve seats that are not hardened for unleaded gas usage. You can start this process in any position of the engine. To make it simpler you can remove the distributor cap so that you can watch the rotor position. You now take a feeler gauge for the proper clearance and check all of the now loosened valves, you merely tighten the loose ones down to fit the gauge clearance. Do not loosen any others that are tight. Then turn the engine one quarter turn and repeat the same process and only adjust the loose ones. By the time you have done this eight times, you have run the camshaft through a complete cycle. Just reinstall the valve covers and distributor cap and you are done. This also works for hydraulic lifters. For hydraulic lifters you do not need the gauge. Just make sure that all of the valves are loose. If you are installing a new cam, changing heads, etc. you will be intalling the rockers for the first time so they will be loose. Tighten each rocker arm down while you are spinning the push rod with your fingers. As soon as you feel a slight tension on the push rod it is time to stop as you now have zero clearance. Do the same routine for the eight quarter turns on the crank and all of the valves will be at zero clearance. Then you tighten them the proper amount of turns specified for the camshaft that you are using.

-Fred-

66gtk · April 17, 2008 at 6:54 AM

Thanks - I assume you can do this all "cold"??

CharlesTurner · April 17, 2008 at 7:37 AM

This sounds like the same procedure in the Ford shop manual, no?

Spinning push rods until resistance and turning the crank 1/4 turns at a time...

Have a friend that told me something easier than that, which works well. I'll have to check on my "cheat-sheet", but it goes something like... adjust the intake as the exhaust starts to go down, adjust the exhaust as the intake starts to go up. I'll try to remember to check what I have written down.

oscart_old · April 17, 2008 at 8:50 AM

Caspian, that is the correct way which eliminates issues caused by the factory TDC method which assumes that all camshafts have the same base circle. I have used the factory setup and double checked it using methods that Comp Cams recommends and have found that the factory setup does not work well with aftermarket cams at least.

C6ZZKGT · April 17, 2008 at 10:38 AM Official Post

Troy, In regards to cold or hot settings, that is up to you. The Ford camshafts list both a hot and cold setting. Not all camshaft manufactureres list both hot and cold settings.

-Fred-

C6ZZKGT · April 17, 2008 at 10:44 AM Official Post

Charles, The reason that I like my method is that there is no thinking involved. After the intial setting on the first crank position, you will only be adjusting three or four valves per crank position as the others will be tight and will be obvious. This way there is no need to watch which valves are moving as it becomes unimportant to the process. I can actually run a valve adjustment this way in around ten to fifteen minutes on a Hipo 289 as long as I do not have to change valve cover gaskets.

-Fred-

adjusting solid lifters

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