Got the 350 started today. It was missing at 700-1200 rpm but if you rev it up to anywhere above 1400 rpm it pretty much goes away, or at least smooths out. When i used a drill to get oil pressure in the engine before it was in the car i lashed the valves. I was worried that the lifters weren't pumped up all the way, but i put it in the car anyway, assuming i could adjust them when it was running. Well my uncle looks in his corvette book, for around the same year as the engine, and it says that they are just supposed to be at 18ft lfbs torque. We torque them down to 18ft lbs, and it dosnt fire at all, it just makes like a whinning noise, so that was obviously not right.
Is going to zero lash then one full turn the correct way to do it?
We have to cut the top out of the old valve covers so it dosn't make a mess everywhere, and its gonna be a couple days before i can work on it again.
When its running you just loosen the rocker arm nuts till you can hear a click, then tighten them up just enough so that its gone, then go one full turn right?

 

that is correct it isnt going to be a single click it is going to be more of a chatter... then tighten till the sound just stops and anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 turn more for preload that is it.... the isnt a specific torque value on them... you should check to see if you have done any major damage.... are we talking a roller cam or flat tappet?

 

i turn the motor to tdc on that cylinder and tighten the rocker arm to the point that i can't twist the pushrod anymore with just my fingers (clean fingers and pushrods make a difference here) and then i go half a turn past that

i never have much luck jostleing the rockers, i think im to hard on them and i bleed down the lifters, then i run the lash to tight

finally, it is possible to smack a valve on a piston, but i doubt you did that with only 18 ft lbs of tourqe, a simple compression test can determine this after you set the valves, and you probably didn't do any damage to the cam

 

its a flat tappet, we didnt run it with the rocker arms torqued, it wouldnt start, so im not sure how much damage i could have done. I hope itl be ok tho. Whats preload? i thought it was 1 turn past zero lash.

 

preload used to be 1 turn past...now people have decided that 1 full turn isnt important and less will be just as affective and leave a wider safty margine for those people who try to set zero lash by turning the pushrods...Not the way to do it if you havent been seting zero lash since 1987... it takes a lot of skill because you ARENT supposed to tighten the rocker until the pushrod STOPS turning... you are only supposed to tighten it until you feel a very slight resistance! i mean very slight if you are cranking them down until you cant turn them that is bad and you will have bottomed out the plunger in the lifter and you wont get oil to your rocker arm and pushrod

----
i find the easiest way to do it set it without the engine running is to use the TDC method but instead of turning the pushrod you should try moving it up and down and tighten the rocker until there isnt any vertical play then add 1/4 turn

 

getting each piston to tdc seems like its going ot be a pain. I think ill just do it while its running, since it will run. It misses but not bad enough to backfire at all.

 

nah, just take of the cap and watch it like that, you can get it really close