I put on the GT40P heads, and am still fighting with the headers. No plugs yet, need those shorty plugs at $12 a piece. But, I have the pushrods and rockers on the heads, and none of them wiggle... They all seem to have pressure on them. Shouldn't some of them be "at rest" and have no pressure on them? Stock rods from the original setup, and stock rockers from the P heads, as far as I know. And never been machined on, so there should be no distance reduction from anything. Remember, I have those wierd rockers that nobody has ever seen. Picture at http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=17875 I don't want to start this thing up until I know nothing will bend/break/blowup.
Can you spin all of them? Maybe try turning the engine with a wrench on the front and make sure it turns over easily enough. I can't remember how much a normal pushrod moves but it's not much or it would rattle and cause alot of noise I would think. The rocker arms in your picture are just regular old pedistal mounted rockers used on small blcok Fords from around 79-80 on up. Instead of using the rail type rockers to keep the rocker arms straight but capturing the valve tip it uses the pedistal thing a ma bob to keep it straight. Clint
Do a search on the forum for the proper valve adustment order. You want to adjust while the valve is closed and the lifter is completely off the lobe. Torque the rocker retaining bolt to about 20lbs and you are done. This assumes there were no mods that would require different length pushrods or shims ... Do Not Overtorque the bolts ... the break very easy ...
So, torque each one down when the lifter is down, so that it is torquing against the bolt only, not torquing against the bolt and spring pressure? Do I have that right? And, if you mean "spin them" as in rolling the rod by finger while it is installed, then yes, I can spin all but 4 or 5 of them, those 4-5 being the ones with the full pressure on them (ie. valve is open). So, it sounds safe to turn over? I didn't even want to turn the engine by hand until I was sure the valves weren't going to hit the pistons. Also, with the stock 8:1 compression, will the valves even hit (.472 lift)?
Compression has nothing to do with wether or not the valves will hit the pistons. I would assume you would be safe with that lift. Typically under .500 you are safe with most stock and after market pistons. However the only way to know for sure is to check it. The clay method is the preferred. Did you mill the heads? If so you will need new push rods or shims for the rocker arms. Fought this on my buddies buick. Kept breaking rockers or the rail. He only milled it .020. I would have never thought it would cause so many problems but it did..........good luck
Factory lift that those springs were used on was .444 ... I wouldn't think .472 will be an issue. I see you are using a non-roller cam and lifters. If the cam and lifters are brand new you shouldn't turn the engine over until ready to start. You have to do a proper break-in. If you start turning it over you are gonna scrape off all the cam pre-lube and ruin the cam and/or lifters.
I got brave and turned the motor 360'. No bumps, stops, clunks, etc. It was much harder to turn with the heads on, even without the plugs in, it took the socket on the crank to get it going. I never realized how much torque it takes to turn the valvetrain components. I figured I better do it by hand before I get it started up and mess up the valves. I will turn it again and re-torque the rocker bolts when the valves are at rest, now that I know I am not hitting. The cam and lifters are old (500 miles, 6 months) so lube shouldn't be an issue. I will probably swap the oil and run the oil pump before I do anymore turning on this engine. Just to be safe. Need to drop the oil before starting anyway, since it has metal dust, water, etc in it.
