Rocker arm play

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danielb927

danielb927

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I had the oil filler cap off today and while I was at it I decided to stick a screwdriver in and check the play on the rocker arm that's under the cap. I was able to move it about 1/16 inch back and forth along the rocker shaft, which seems like a lot of play. That's just a rough guess based on how it looked, I can get better numbers this weekend. Should it be tighter than that? Do I need a different spacer in between them or something? I'm planning to take the valve covers off this weekend and have a closer look at all of them.
 
Thats the beauty of rocker shafts! The rockers are free! Like olds rockers with no pants! Enjoy your free rockers, they rock!

Sounds about right to me............
 
What kind of rockers, eg. stock stamped steel or roller, my Hughes aluminum rollers are .006-.012" side play.
 
I'm going out on a limb and guessing because he stuck a screwdriver into his rockers to wiggle them, and didn't check the clearance, he has stock stamped rockers.... :)


Good thing they werent the spring loaded ones! You woulda slid em off the valve tip!!!!
 
Stock stamped ones as far as I can tell. I'm just trying to find out why the thing sounds so weird - it sounds like the firing order is wrong but I know it's right, like I said I've done timing, baselined the carb mixture screws, and the vacuum just dies when it gets below 1200 or so RPM. Blocked off the EGR, and that helped a lot with the acceleration power since the valve was leaking before, but hasn't helped the idle much. So I guess i'm between a bad manifold leak and something wrong with the valvetrain.
 
danielb927 said:
Stock stamped ones as far as I can tell. I'm just trying to find out why the thing sounds so weird - it sounds like the firing order is wrong but I know it's right, like I said I've done timing, baselined the carb mixture screws, and the vacuum just dies when it gets below 1200 or so RPM. Blocked off the EGR, and that helped a lot with the acceleration power since the valve was leaking before, but hasn't helped the idle much. So I guess i'm between a bad manifold leak and something wrong with the valvetrain.
Click to expand...

Check your PCV and make sure it's working properly, if you got one, and not draining your vacuum.
 
demon seed said:
Check your PCV and make sure it's working properly, if you got one, and not draining your vacuum.
Click to expand...

I do have one, would it be draining vacuum if the valve was bad? Or a bad seal around it causing a leak or something? I know it's hooked up to the right carb port.
 
Put a new PCV in and new grommet today, same problem. I even had someone take the pcv out while it was running and plug it with their thumb and it didn't change. The vacuum just dies when it gets below 1000 rpm or so. Any ideas? It also sounds like there's a hiss that's more than just the carb sucking in air, so I'm still thinking it might just be a vacuum leak somewhere? Any ideas for where else to look?
 
danielb927 said:
Put a new PCV in and new grommet today, same problem. I even had someone take the pcv out while it was running and plug it with their thumb and it didn't change. The vacuum just dies when it gets below 1000 rpm or so. Any ideas? It also sounds like there's a hiss that's more than just the carb sucking in air, so I'm still thinking it might just be a vacuum leak somewhere? Any ideas for where else to look?
Click to expand...

Spray carb cleaner around the carb, intake, gaskets etc. You will know when you find your leak. Just be careful to not spray on exhaust manifolds or headers. Fire sucks.
 
Thanks, I will give that a try. Hoping I find something and don't have to start taking things apart!
 
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