Ok guys i need a little help here. Ive heard what sounds kinda like a rattling (metal), coming from the drivers side of my engine bay. so i decided to pull off that valve cover. I dont really know too much about adjusting rockers but you couldnt lift the rocker off of the valve head, but you could rotate it from side to side. almost enough that the roller from the rocker comes off the top of the valve. I would say total play side to side was 1/4 inch. Would this be causing the rattling sound i heard? If so how to i take that play out?

 

Oh yes and the cam is a hyd flat tappet and i have alum roller rockers.

 

Could be. What heads? You need a way to keep the pushrod and rocker in line, whether it is slots in the head (a factory thing on most of our heads) or a guideplate, or self aligning rockers that have lips on the valve tip side but sounds like you do not have self aligning rockers on there so you need either the slot or a guideplate or there's a big problem.

 

the heads have guide plates on them. i went by my machine shop and he said i maybe able to move them a little if there in "neutral position" having to do with the cam not the transmission lol. sorry i dont know the correct word to use there. He said the rockers may need to be readjusted. They havent been readjusted since the motor was first fired, and ive got 1k-2k miles on it now.

 

pretty sure roller rockers need to be re-adjusted after within 100km or whatever that works out into miles for you americans!

 

Sounds like you just need to torque them down. A torque wrench would be handy so you don't over tighten them. It might seem a bit technical but do your googling on how to tighten rocker arms, read more than one article just to be sure that everyone is on the same page. Check out this page for a quick reference. Also you might just want to get a haynes book on your model. They do have some good references in them, then other times it just seems like the book of the devil... lol

http://www.pontiacstreetperformance....p/rockers.html

 

Do NOT do that on a small block Chevy! The rockers are not torqued down.

Is this guy going to readjust them for you? It should not need to be done, but hopefully just one came a little loose and needs attention.