renderking

Ok, I'm too much of an idiot to figure this out on my own. I really tried looking on my own, and reached out to a few sources, but I keep coming up empty.

History: Picked up a 91 LX 5.0 a few months back. There were some preexisting mods... It's running a b303 cam (just installed, there was some mystery after market cam in there, no markings, and owner didn't know), trick flow heads, 1.6 ford racing rockers on studs, 6.700 push rods and... I'm having a hell of a time adjusting the valves.

Bottom half is all stock. Other than the cam, everything came pre-installed with the car. I pulled the cam cause I had a b303 given to me, and I really didn't know what was installed.

Anyways on to my problem... I believe I adjusted the stud mount rockers by the book... 3/4 quarter turn after zero lash, tighten lock nut, 1/4 additional turn. Car started up, but the rockers sounded terrible. So, I pulled the valve covers off again, and all the pushrods felt really loose.

Second time around, did the same thing thinking maybe my buddy messed up his side (he did passenger, I did driver). Started knocking out each one, one by one, went back to double check some of the earlier ones, and they felt loose again after a few spins of the crank.

Basically this is driving me nuts. Can someone help me determine what I got? And what I got to do? I do question if the current setup was ever correct, because when I pulled the valve cover off, I found one of the rockers sitting there unattached!! But I'm not sure what the right setup is... two of the studs have a different size nut on them too. Like I said, the car will run with the above method, just sounds like a room of old sewing machines. It can't be good for the car. I called trickflow and they weren't of any real help because they said my serial number was too old on the heads (wtf?). When I shot them a pic they said my heads should be pedestal mount and no adjustments are needed other than torquing them down. Case closed. I'm completely confused, going nuts, and really just want to get her running again, so I can enjoy the rest of the summer in it!

Attached are some pics that I'm hoping someone could help me identify and steer me in the right direction.

http://s844.photobucket.com/albums/a...rockerstud.jpg

The underside of the rocker has some abnormal wear to it too that scares me. It was like this before the new cam, but I'm sure all this ain't helping them either.

67mustang302

On a roller block pushrod length is only around 6.250.

nitrous_bob

are you certain you have zero lash ?

and are you doing 1 rocker at a time or are you doing the "3 position" method ?

do 1 at a time and use your finger on the valves.... as soon as the one closes.... the other just starts to open.... then do it

mattkoly

One at a time will help to ensure you are on the base circle of the cam lobe when doing the adjustment...

renderking

Ha, nothing I do is certain!! Kind of joking, kind of serious.

Here's what I'm doing:

I'm targeting 1 rocker at a time. I'll spin the crank till either exhaust or intake is closed, and target the one that's completely open. I'll spin the pushrod in between my fingers till I feel a bit of drag, and tighten it down from there. Repeat till all are complete.

After doing that method twice, they still always sounded terrible. So I went back and instead of 3/4 turn, I did a full turn. Car sputtered a little bit, then just cranked. I'm now at the point where I was going to spin the push rod till it almost completely stopped spinning, but decided stop and seek advice to see what others thought. Or if others spotted something wrong with my setup, or technique.

Bubba 95SN

Pushrod for old cam had wear pattern dead center=correct. Take a sharpie color top of valve adjust then turn over a few rounds. Take rocker off look where line is too far to exhaust=too long, too far to intake=too short. Then need to get adjustable pushrod to get correct length. Rocker hitting spring retainer. Try set of Trick Flow RR. Ex starts to open adj intake, intake about 2/3 way to closing (after max lift) adjust ex valve. Turn polylock while rotating pushrod,when you feel resistance you are at zero lash. Turn 1/2 turn now tighten set screw. Roller rockers do sound like a bunch of old sewing machines.Comp cams instructions I had for their cam and RR. Check torque on the rocker arm studs. That one RR is messed up in picture.

renderking

Noted and thanks for the tip. Your suspecting the length of my pushrods as being the culprit? Sounds like Bubba's sharpie trick may help me determine...

I like the sharpie trick, and am anxious to try. But wouldn't how much I spin the rocker nut down impact this result? So when setting the rockers, your recommendation is to do 1/2 turn, and not 3/4? What about the extra 1/4 turn after the set screw, is that not needed?

tinman

Make sure all 16 studs are right in the heads.....

renderking

Before I opened this thread, I had correspondence with trick flow that I stopped receiving responses on. Today I received the following response from their support:

"You have a problem. That is an old set of our pedestal mount rocker heads that someone tried using the Crane stud mount conversion. That does not work on our heads. In order to have them converted to studs they need to be sent in here and converted by us. The cost would be around $500 to do so."

Any recommendations at this point? Continue to work with what I got (car was running before cam swap, but I'm not too hopeful at this point), send them to trick flow to get worked over, or start with some fresh heads?

AdderMk2

the problem I see, according to the wear pattern on the tip of the vale, is that your pushrods are the wrong length.

get an adjustable pushrod and go through the process of dining the proper length