Re: Hyd valve adjustment

I just went through this process last month on my cousin's '66 Poly. (He purchased his hydraulic cam & lifter set from Gary P.). With some advice from another Mopar friend of mine, we decided that "x" = 1 full turn of pre-load after zero lash is achieved. The specification for hydraulic lifter pre-load is somewhere between .020" and .060" and I believe his math had one full turn being equal to about .029". This adjustment was done cold and without priming the lifters. It worked pretty well. After we broke in the cam, we started to notice a little ticking and went back in for readjustment. We rechecked everything, added the full turn of pre-load, and still had some light ticking. We ended up adding an additional 1/4 turn to that thus revising it to x = 1.25 turns after zero lash. It's been running great for several weeks now... no ticking and seems happy! His engine was not rebuilt and we didn't have any work done on the original heads/ valve train except for new seals and HP valve springs, so this may account for a little of our "slop". I'd start with one full turn cold. There's no risk of it being too tight and there should be plenty of room to tighten them more if need be... also no oil on your fenders!

Someone had posted on a website somewhere... not ours... we're too smart :) that you would be able to feel a difference while spinning the push-rod and tightening when "zero lash" is attained. This is not true. Just move the push rod up and down as you're tightening until you feel there is no more end play. Really close is good enough as the hydraulic lifters are very forgiving... that's why we like them! Hope some of this helps.

On Monday, July 29, 2013 11:27:49 PM UTC-5, LeRoar wrote:

I have a cam, lifters and pushrods that are to convert my poly from solids to hydraulic. They were not offered in 1964 so my manual doesn't give any info. I was of the opinion that the procedure was to rotate the cam to baseline on a valve, tighten just to take up the slack and then turn it X turns after that. I also need the value of X if this is correct :-) Can anyone verify this or give me the proper method? I do realize the lifter needs to be pumped up for the process and I can do this by running the oil pump with a drill motor.

Any input will be appreciated.

Rich Kinsley '64 Dodge Polara 4dr LeRoar 324 poly w/goodies