The manual calls for 1 1/2 turns on a 2.8 with hyd. lifters after the slack has been taken out. What do most of you,run? Also,I've always refered to the righthand or lefthand as sitting in the drivers seat,so when the intake gaskets or marked r/h and l/f , I assume they mean as sitting in the drivers seat.

 

I've followed the same thing; right = passenger side of car, left = driver's side. Or, at least, I think I do. It's a little late (couldn't sleep!) and I don't have a wrench in my hand, so I can't say for sure.

The lifter adjustment is basically to seat the pushrod a certain depth into the lifter. You want to give the rocker arm nut a certain # of turns which translates into "vertical" change... each 360 degree turn might equal 0.030 of depth. (Those aren't true numbers, just made 'em up off the top of my head.) That's why you can actually set the lifters using a dial gauge, and not be concerned with how many turns you give the rocker arm nut, just so long as the correct depth is reached. An ideal depth for the lifter plunger puts the plunger mid-way, allowing for the lifter's "self-adjustment" to go either way.

My GM service manual says to go 1 1/2 turns to put the plunger in the middle of it's travel. I think I went 3/4 turn on the 2.8/2.8 swap that I helped with. The message where I "learned" all this is here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=23615

 

Well,the after the initial setting I've always done the adj.. with the engine idling,loosen til it clicks and tighten until it stops,but I remember reading that the adj can be taliored to affect the performance?

 

You are referring to
Keep rocker arm slightly loose, ya can rev a few RPMs more.
YET with the original weak by age 2.8/3.1 springs, ya gotta be careful!
I used a cylinder pressure gauge to adjust my lifters on the Firebird.
That worked perfect.
I tried same trick on my Blazer & my lifters are just slightly too loose.