I need to put the rockerarms back on to my 350 with the stock heads and rockerarms, roller cam, and hydraulic lifters.

I know that this is best done with the engine running; however, being that the engine is out of the car right now, I want to adjust my rockerarms as best as possible with the engine off--at least well enough that the engine will run without any major problems.

The engine-rebuild book that I have is telling me to turn all of the bolts until they are hand-tightened, and then go 3 full rotations from there. Whenever I do that, though, the pushrod jiggles all over the place.

Also, since I'm using hydraulic lifters, the fact that the oil has bled-out is an issue. So, the only thing that I've thought to do is to twist the pushrod with one hand while tightening the locknut with the other hand (with a breakover bar). I continue to twist the pushrod while tightening the nut until I feel some resistance on the pushrod (i.e. the point at which there is pressure between the lifter and the rockerarm). I am under the assumption that the lifters won't "compress" at all when they have oil in them; hence, the point at which I feel resistance in the rotation of the pushrod is the point where the nut won't be so overtightend so as to keep the valve open, but won't be so loose as to let the pushrod jiggle. I should note that I only do this with the lifters that are in the closed position (down)--I rotate the crank to get to the others.

Is that the proper method, or should I be trying something else?

Thanks!

 

with the piston at TDC spin the push rod while tightening the nut until the push rod stops spinning then go 1/2 turn more. watch that the lifter doesn't start to spin as the push rod tightenes up.