Engine noise

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Cobradad

I have no idea of the proper settings for the particular cam in the car. I intend to pull the valve covers over the weekend and visually inspect whats going on. Not sure if I will attempt the adjustment myself, its been over 30 years since I did one.

Bob, you could always just check the other valves with a feeler gauge to see what the lash is on them. But what I would do for a decent starting point on valve lash for that particular engine is if those TP heads are aluminum set the lash for both intake and exhaust COLD at around .018, if they're iron, set them COLD to about .026 -- that's close enough for now. The only trick to adjusting solid valves is to make sure you have the engine rotated so that you're on the heel of the lobe. It's been discussed many times here, I'll see if I can find you the easiest thread. What I do to rotate the valvetrain is just put my half-inch ratchet on the crank bolt and then slip the aluminum handle from my jack over that so that it's effectively a three foot long ratchet wrench. That makes rotating the engine very easy and you don't have to pull the spark plugs either.