Refresh on a 302: Any Advice or build secrets?

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Doug

David, great explanation. I would have definitely pulled the head off and looked for the putty on the piston only to find it on the valves.
Don't want to impose on your help with more questions, but what is "zero lash" insofar as rocker arms are concerned?
Yeah, I'm a novice.
DD

We were all novices and asking the same questions at some point in time,only way to learn.oil on putty trick was learned the hard way, one learns these little "tricks" when one gets tired of doing something 3 times to get it right!!!!!!!
When using solid lifters to check piston to valve clerance, you want "zero lash" to get an accurate reading.....to get zero lash, you want the lifter to be on the base of the camshaft, not on the lobe,with the intake off, you can actually see this as you rotate the engine by hand, now put the rocker arm on and tighten the adjusting nut down until the rocker arm tip is just barely touching the valve tip, you can wiggle the rocker arm with one hand as you are tightening the rocker adjusting nut and feel when it is snug on the valve tip..by doing this, you have taken all the "slack" out of everything and get a true/accurate reading....One this is all done and you remove the head, you should see some marks in the putty where the valve touched it as it opened, cut the putty with a razor blade as in my above photo and you wil see how much clearance you will have between the valve and piston....as long as you have about .125 or more, your fine.....with stock type flat top pistons and anything but a very aggresive camshaft, you should be fine......

David