O2 didn't get "unplugged" did it ?

Alright.. So my car isn't gettin full power still.
Taking off is rough, very underpowered..

I went 1 1/4 turns on my lash this time.. I'm thinking I was better at 3/4 turns..

this has been an interesting thread. I went back through the archives and this discussion has been going on a long time. 3/4 works perfect for some, doesn't for others. 1 1/2 was too much or just right. My Haynes manual says 3/4 turn, so that's what I did. I didn't look at my electronic service manual but I'm expecting that will say 1 1/2. I set mine using both the twirling and wiggle to try to hear the clicking. with twirling there was just the very slightest drag. What keeps me up at night is the lifters are new, I did soak them in oil but not really sure they were full of oil. watched for the bubbling to stop but didn't compress them while in the oil. I did spin the oil pump to see oil come out the rockers but starting to wonder if I shouldn't take off the valve covers and do it one more time. The dilemma of 3/4 vs 1 1/2 still bothers me. I'm starting to think I like the idea of 1 turn best.

My car is strange..
Yesterday no power, Poor acceleration.

Today? Started up and had all its power like nothing ever happened.
Her name is now Tantrum.

In sticking with 1 1/4 turns, I was at 3/4, my
Book called for 1 1/2.

I was going to do 1, but I met in the middle.

So I found the following in the archives which answers my question about new lifters. No sense in taking chances, I'll redo the valve lash. I did the pre-oiling after I adjusted the valves. wrong order. Luckily motor is still out of the car. I haven't figured out how to copy parts of threads yet. I need to read the instructions. would come in handy to know right now.
"When rotating the push rod, it is too easy to misjudge when it is fully seated. The reason is the lubrication masking full contact. The more accurate way is to wiggle the pushrod back and forth in its seat. When it stops moving you back of the nut until the pushrod will just move, not tight. Then you know you are at a true 0 clearance.

Another issue is the hydraulic lifters. They will fool you if you have new ones, because you can't tell if they are fully charged with oil. Then you have a re-assembled engine with valve lash that is not right, after you've taken pains to make it right. So, point being that you need to turn the engine over a few times to load up the lifters.

I also used a hex drive on the end of a drill extension, down the distributor shaft hole, which I fed through a rubber sink stopper that I used to seal up the distributor shaft while I cranked over the oil pump with an electric drill until the pushrods were oozing oil out the top. That is a pretty good indicator the oil is fully charged.

You might expect to do the valve lash adjustment twice. The first time to get things running, and then after a few days a second time to get it perfect.

Good luck on it."

Arn

With or without oil in the lifters shouldn't matter. The spring is strong enough to allow zero lash to be found. From there the number of turns sets the positioning.

When empty, the lifter tends to go down when you set the lash. When full the valve tends to go down since the oil doesn't like being compressed. But either way, the oil shouldn't make any difference in the final setting.

[This message has been edited by TK (edited 04-23-2013).]

I adjusted my valvelash on my new engine out of the car before I preoiled it. Engine has gone around 450 miles now. There is some valvetrain noise but I honestly can't tell if it is a normal amount or not. I have to replace my flywheel so I will retorque the heads and redo the valve lash then. When I set it this first time I used 1.25 turns which goes against the haynes manual which I generally follow. What distance from the top of the lifter does the plunger need to be depressed?

and so the mystery continues. 3/4 works, 1 1/2 works, Haynes and Clymer don't agree. The 3.4L Chevy threads seem to favor 1 1/2. I think the constant is twirling is less scientific and more art than the wobble and wiggle method. Seems as though many over the years seem to feel using the twirling method sets them a little too tight to begin with so the 3/4 turn ends up close to the 1 1/2 turns when using the wiggle method. makes setting my gold wing valve clearance easy (not hydraulic) if .004 fits and .005 doesn't, it's good.