Okay, so I finally got my engine all back together in one giant beautifull piece, I had it all the way down to the block, heads off.

The reason I did this was because of a knock.

Ended up being the lifters, cool, replaced them.

But while the heads were off I wanted to see if it was anything in the crank that caused the knock so I turned the crank over at the pully. Obviously I changed the timing.

So my friend recommended the easy way to adjust valve lash, tighten them down enough untill the pushrods cant spin and then tighten 1/3 of a turn more. he said its a temp way to do it but not a good idea basically.

Okay, so I put it all back together, There is a Giant split in the harmonic balancer, I figure it was the timing mark, whatever, put it half way in the timing gauges, #1's lifters both exhaust and intake were at the same level, so I figured it may be close enough to TDC.

Point the distributor towards #1.

Eventually get to the point to try to start it.

Some mist blows out through the carb, doesnt start. okay, turn the distributor a little bit.

Does it again, so I turn it the opposite way.

The car is in the garage, with the garage door closed.

I goto start it

My ear drums explode, loudest backfire I've ever heard in my entire life.

So what should I do? How am I suppose to get the timing down right? I dont have a timing light.

I just want it close enough so I can start it, and adjust it by ear.

I would love to be able to drive this thing soon, its been sitting in my garage for about a month now and its driving me nuts not being able to drive.

Once I get her started though ill be a very happy man, new performer rpm intake manifold, gasket ported heads and all that sort of performance super fun.

I want to be able to drive it and see what she is made of now, but I dont know what to do about the timing!

*kicks self in face*

 

mmm im not an engine guy so im just repeating what ive seen
but the last post i saw a mention of a guy tightening the valves down till the pushrods couldnt 'spin' wrecked 2 sets of pushrods

just wanted to point that out.. dunno anything else :0

 

..oh my

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=301004

about halfway down... yeah again i dont know what im talking about but when i saw 'couldnt spin' I thought id mention it, before it possibly becomes too late

 

your friend is a idiot.









go back off the lash on all of them before you even crank it again.... if you have a roller cam, theres hope... if its flat tappet, you might as well pull the cam out now and put a new one in with fresh lifters..

go pray your pushrods are still straight, and you didnt bend a valve.








the lifter has a plunger in it. you want this plunger to be roughly in the middle of its very short stroke.

what you did is bottom it out, then overtighten it more.

what your friend did was take some advice he heard, misinterpret it, and relay it to you.

try this instead:
tighten the nut until the SLACK is out of the pushrod... then a slight turn (1/4 to 1/3) would push the plunger to its mid stroke.




















currently your problem is your way tight lash is holding the valves open.

 

that thread helped me a bit, im going to take the valve covers off and check to see if i wrecked my pushrods, then ill set my lash the proper way >.<

 

oh...great...

 

its flat tappet

 

how long did you "run" it that way?

 

a good minutes total worth of cranking

i have the valve cover off, and i checked the pushrods, none are bent.

how should i go about adjusting the lash?

Should I loosen them up and tighten them down untill I cant move them up and down?

 

never mind, im stupid, sorry.

I'll tighten them down untill the pushrod doesnt have any more play, and well see what happens from there.

I wont be able to do it right away, I have to leave.

Ill do it tonight probably, or tomorrow.

thanks for the help though.

I wonder how i got my 3.8l ford running after doing the head gaskets and just tightening down the rockers "good enough" weird...

 

Okay so I read up on some websites on how to set valve lash the right way, I did it, everythign seems fine.

Now im having the major problem of getting the timing right.

I find tdc #1 using a pencil. and I point the rotor to #1, put the cap back on, and it doesnt start. I get a backfire through the carb and thats about it. A friend of mine recomended to rotate the distributor 180* but I dont see how thats going to help me.

Im lost, timing has never been my thing.

Also, another thing is I noticed some coolant leaking through 2 head bolts on the driver side, I pull out my torque wrench and they turned a little bit more when I reached 70, weird. I think I solved that problem.

 

check that you have the wires set to the right plugs when i did the heads on my 91 i couldnt get it to start so i looked at the wires and i had just crossed a few and all it would do is turn over and back fire but never start. not sure if that will help but it helped me. and your friend might have suggested that for the same reason because my dad told me the same thing when i was trying to figure mine out.

 

this thread is 6 years old man.

 

oops guess i should look at the dates next time huh