I am just finishing up all of the details before I adjust the valve lash on my 84 L69 and I just wanted to make sure this makes sense. I read that you can tell the difference between the exhaust and intake valves by which lines up with the intake manifold and exhaust manifold ports, just out of curiosity is there any other way to tell?

 

Looks accurate to me. Easiest way I looked at it was, the ends are always exhaust and the center two are always exhaust. The rest by fault have to be intakes.

 

looks right to me i just did valve seals this past weekend the best way to adj valves. I did it by the service man. was very hard to determine 0 lash and 1 turn is way too much so scrap that. start the car back off rocker nut untill a distinct clack is heard tight slowly untill clack goes away now your at zero lash tighten 1/2 turn perfect. my car runs soo much better now.so intake exhaust doesn't matter just star at one end and do the next one and so on

 

Ok so using the engine on adjustment method doesnt require any sort of 0 degree before top dead center settings? Just valve covere off, engine on and start anywhere, no particular attention to cylinder number or valve intake / exhaust?

Anyone else have any thoughts on the advantages of either method?

 

just a note when tightening turn slow let the motor chatch up cause rpms will drop for a second then pick up again.... check youtube if you want to see video on it i got valve cover gaskets and put on the bottom used the cardboard insert to catch any oil flicked around at idle h i had barely a dribble out of pushrods so oil was bad at all very minimal

 

Ok u got the firing order. Now if u understand that a V8 engine has 2 pistons come to TDC every 90 degrees of crank rotation u will see it follows that firing order. When the dampner mark is on 0 degrees the both #1 and #6 cyls are at TDC. Only one of them is ready to fire with both vlvs closed and the other has both vlvs part open in overlap. So yes all u have to do is look at the vlvs and rocker arms to see which cyl is ready to fire with both vlvs closed and the 2 lifters will be on the "base circle" ready to adjust preload. Note the rockers and lifter must have some amount of preload to begin with to see this. If u are setting the rockers up for the first time then u need to just get some preload to start with to see which vlvs open - then u can adj it correctly once u identify which cyl is ready to fire.

Ok so saying it was cyl number 1 that was ready to fire w/vlvs closed and u adj #1 cyl preload. Now turn the crank counter clockwise (when standing in front of engine) 90 degrees. Look at your firing order and guess which cyls are at TDC now? Yep, cyls #8 and #5. And if previous it was cyl #1 ready to fire then now its cyl #8 (if it was cyl #6 it would now be cyl #5). Set your preload on the cyl ready to fire.

Now i think u can see what happens every 90 degrees of crank rotation and which vlvs to look at. Ok then next 90 degrees is cyls #4 and #7. Next 90* will be cyls 3 & 2. Thats one full turn of the crank for 360* and u still have four cyls to do. But now the opposite cyl is ready to fire. If previous was #1 it will now be #6 ready to fire. Next 90* will be cyl #5 and #8 at TDC with #5 ready to fire. Next 90* #7 ready to fire (adj preload). And finally cyl # 2 is at TDC ready to fire and adj preload.

Do it a couple of times on paper and u should have it nailed.

Last i roll/turn the p-rod with my fingers until no more up and down movement and maybe just a little drag rolling/moving side to side. Then i use 1 full turn preload on OEM hyd lifters (unless LS7 lifter which would be more like 1/4 or 1/8 turn).

Hope this helps more than it hurts.

 

I know this is an old post, but regardless thank you, because your schematic has gotten me out of a jam while i was working on my car and I could not find this information anywhere.

 

This is the pic I made the first time I set valve lash like 30 years ago...... color coding seemed to help a bit !

Setting valve lash @ #1 TDC and #6 TDC




Setting valve lash at each piston 1-by-1