Should rocker arms be loose

i took my valve covers off, and most my arms were lose

i coudl sit there and tap them

so me and my dad unloosen all fo them and found top dead center in each cyclinder and fixed it



my question is this

how much of a performace issue is this,, could this of game me loss of power

[Twin_Turbo]

For sure, it reduces valve lift by the amount of slack it has to take up.

Marck

so i should be excited then

when i get it back together tomorrow

[Twin_Turbo]

You may or may not notice it. Depends on how many were loose and by how much.

Marck

[69MyWay]

Hey Shadow,

This all depends. Seems to me you mentioned before you had some kind of a noise in the engine.

The stock style rockers really should not just get loose. You might have very worn rockers. You should have compared the tips where they hold the valve and push rod to see if they are mashed out.

A new set of stock rockers is cheap. I had an S-10 that just wore a hole through the pushrod side and was making all kinds of noise, then started skipping on that one cylinder. A new set of rockers and pushrods, and she ran another 40,000 quiet smooth miles.

I hope you guys rotated the engine, and set the valves according to specs, and did not just tighten them down until they appeared to be tight.

If you pull a valvecover, except for those valves that are open, the other rockers will be loose with the engine turned off and sitting still. (factor of hydraulic lifters).


Let us know.

[Vettelt193]

from what I rember, shadowing has over 200k on his car... i agree that worn out rockers could be the case... What kind of rockers do you have though? are they the factory stamped rockers? or rollers? a new set may be in order if they are the factory originals

and like 70 percent of them were loose

and yeah i found top dead center on all pistons before tightening them


i will know today
i use silcone instead of gasket
and it does way better

in fact some factories are starting to just use silcone
i think the noise was caused from my valve cover being on back wards cuas ei put on backwards accident
i have it all back together now almost and it looks really good

i wish i had a digital camera to show u guy's what my engine looked before i painted it then after...

if i buy rocker arms i will spend the little extra and buy those magnum ones,, 20 horse power increas, hehe,,


thanks for your imput i will tell u guy's whats going on,, when i get it back to running today

[96Holly]

Check for clearences on the covers. I beleave you need the gasket....

somoene else said that



u think they could be hitting the top of m valve cover

well anyways i got myengine back together

it was idleing really bad now
but i think its out of time still

but anyways, i started my car
it idles between 49 and 65
once it setts its idling point


then i detatch my air control meter under my tps sensor
and the thing idles perfectly at 1300 rpms

then i shut the ngine off and put it back on and back tothe same thing again,,, does this mean something???

i took it down the road, and the thing was like starving for gas or something,, not really that just the gas pedal did nothing hardly was barly accerating.

im going to have my dad look at it tomrorow,, i think the noise in my valve covers have stoped, but its hard to hear when the thing is idling really bad, i think the D moved last time i had it running, might not of tighten it down good enough.. after i timed it,, i have this noise coming from my D "distrubator" i think my rotor is a little loose im goin to open up the cap and look at it in a few minutes. also i notice that the pully that tightens and loosens my belt is moving up and down while the enign eis running. should it do this?

[69MyWay]

Sounds like you have your rockers too tight now.

i just snuged them where the rocker wouldn't sit there and tap

maybe they are hitting the top of my valve cover

but i think there is tons of clearnance

those rubber gaskets arn't that thick

and i put the blue silcone on there pretty thick

[rrubel]

Yeah, but...

The gaskets don't compress much. The silicone does. You may have put a lot on, but unless you let it dry completely before installing the cover, you probably squeezed a bunch out.
[RICHR]

i guess im going to take my covers off again tomorrow

sand blast them and paint them and put the rubber gasket in it



my dads friend told my dad a better way to adjust the valves

he said cover your intake with carboard so oil done'st touch it

and adjust them while hte engine is running.. to look at them move around

or something like that

[rrubel]

If you have a friend who's a mechanic, he might have the special open valve covers that people use for adjusting SBC rockers. Essentially, it's a pair of valve covers with the centers removed and the edges tapered a bit towards the middle. They keep most of the oil in place when you're adjusting the arms with the engine running.

So here's my dumb question of the day - when adjusting the rocker arms with the engine off, and you are turning the engine to find TDC for each cylinder, do you:

a. Remove the serpentine belt so that you just have to turn the crank pulley? and
b. disconnect the spark plugs so that your car doesn't compression start?

These are probably elementary things that everyone knows, but as I'm about to replace the arms and DON'T know, I figured I'd ask...

TIA
[RICHR]