- Nov 12, 2002
- 270
- 26
- 29
hi all
95 mustang gt
preface: i have no real knowledge of anything related to an engine or repairs.
i know how to change my oil, i know how to change brakes, i know how to follow instructions.
now, imo there has always been a bit too much noise coming from under my valve covers. others had done work to the engine, and i assumed they knew what they were doing.
at one point the car had a supercharger which i removed when a bearing went bad.
so, just to see if i could do it, i took the top half of the engine apart and swapped in a new cam.
the cam that i replaced was a ford letter cam that allegedly matched the charger. i think it was an E but might have been X.
when i took the cam out, it was worn in a couple places, one lobe was obviously damaged a bit (i think it was cylinder 6).
i put in a comp cam, new cam is comp cam CCA-35-351-8.
when i put things back together, i put in all new hydraulic lifters. 1 was damaged badly, so i replaced all.
when i had the heads off, i took them to a shop and the guy cleaned them up. i dont remember him doing anything with the valves, but even if he did, i think it wouldnt cause my problem. i am thinking that if he cut the valves or shaved the heads or whatever, then that would effectively make the rods longer, which is the opposite of my problem.
i used regular head gaskets.
rockers are 1.6 ford roller rockers. they are not shimmed.
pushrods as far as i know are stock. i measured them with a ruler to get a ballpark length and they are just a tad over 6.25" so perhaps they are actually stock if stock is like 6.27" i think.
i put everything back together, started it up and it fired right up. but it was making a horrible noise, much worse than ever. disconnected plug wires one at a time and found it was something with #5. took off the driver side valve cover and one rocker was super loose. im almost certain i torqued it down. i realized though that all i did was torque them down, but i didnt follow the correct procedure of slowly tighten to 0 lash, then torque and should be 1/4 to 1/2 turn or so. so since i had the cover off and now knew the proper install procedure, i decided to do them all.
so i set #1 to tdc, did the proper procedure on the intake rocker. actually, i think i did the proper procedure, i watched and read different things and i think i did what was right. i rotated the crank by hand until the exhaust valve just started to open.
then i spun the oil pump with my hand drill to help pump up the lifters ( i assume). i think i did it much longer than necessary.
then i slowly tightened the rocker on the intake side while checking the pushrod. once the pushrod stopped spinning freely, i torqued the rocker bolt to 20lbs. it took almost 1/4 turn. all done, felt pretty good i did it right and it was good.
then i turned the crank by hand until the intake valve opened all the way and just started to come back up.
spun the oil pump again excessively (oil was flowing through rockers etc)
followed same procedure for tightening the rocker down, and the pushrod never stopped turning freely even after i torqued the bolt down to 20lbs
so i dont know if what i consider turning freely is correct. but right now i am assuming there is a problem. seems the pushrod isnt long enough, but maybe the lifters take much longer to pump up than i thought?
perhaps if i torqued it to 22lbs ?
im under the impression that the pushrods shouldnt be able to rotate freely no matter where rocker is, right?
i want to make sure i do it 100% correct this time.
what should i do/try?
am i doing the install correctly?
could it be that after i hand rotated the crank, i didnt wait long enough for the lifter to pump up? i rotated the crank and then spun the oil pump and went right to slowly tightening the rocker while twisting the pushrod. should i have waited a bit after spinning the oil pump?
i was thinking about marking the top of the valve stem with the dry erase marker and checking where the rocker is riding on the valve stem, but id the pushrod isnt tight, would this be a waste of time, or would doing this help me determine the problem? i assume that if i do this it will show that the rocker isnt rolling dead center on the valve stem (but again, i have no real knowledge, just guessing).
if you read all this, thanks!
95 mustang gt
preface: i have no real knowledge of anything related to an engine or repairs.
i know how to change my oil, i know how to change brakes, i know how to follow instructions.
now, imo there has always been a bit too much noise coming from under my valve covers. others had done work to the engine, and i assumed they knew what they were doing.
at one point the car had a supercharger which i removed when a bearing went bad.
so, just to see if i could do it, i took the top half of the engine apart and swapped in a new cam.
the cam that i replaced was a ford letter cam that allegedly matched the charger. i think it was an E but might have been X.
when i took the cam out, it was worn in a couple places, one lobe was obviously damaged a bit (i think it was cylinder 6).
i put in a comp cam, new cam is comp cam CCA-35-351-8.
when i put things back together, i put in all new hydraulic lifters. 1 was damaged badly, so i replaced all.
when i had the heads off, i took them to a shop and the guy cleaned them up. i dont remember him doing anything with the valves, but even if he did, i think it wouldnt cause my problem. i am thinking that if he cut the valves or shaved the heads or whatever, then that would effectively make the rods longer, which is the opposite of my problem.
i used regular head gaskets.
rockers are 1.6 ford roller rockers. they are not shimmed.
pushrods as far as i know are stock. i measured them with a ruler to get a ballpark length and they are just a tad over 6.25" so perhaps they are actually stock if stock is like 6.27" i think.
i put everything back together, started it up and it fired right up. but it was making a horrible noise, much worse than ever. disconnected plug wires one at a time and found it was something with #5. took off the driver side valve cover and one rocker was super loose. im almost certain i torqued it down. i realized though that all i did was torque them down, but i didnt follow the correct procedure of slowly tighten to 0 lash, then torque and should be 1/4 to 1/2 turn or so. so since i had the cover off and now knew the proper install procedure, i decided to do them all.
so i set #1 to tdc, did the proper procedure on the intake rocker. actually, i think i did the proper procedure, i watched and read different things and i think i did what was right. i rotated the crank by hand until the exhaust valve just started to open.
then i spun the oil pump with my hand drill to help pump up the lifters ( i assume). i think i did it much longer than necessary.
then i slowly tightened the rocker on the intake side while checking the pushrod. once the pushrod stopped spinning freely, i torqued the rocker bolt to 20lbs. it took almost 1/4 turn. all done, felt pretty good i did it right and it was good.
then i turned the crank by hand until the intake valve opened all the way and just started to come back up.
spun the oil pump again excessively (oil was flowing through rockers etc)
followed same procedure for tightening the rocker down, and the pushrod never stopped turning freely even after i torqued the bolt down to 20lbs
so i dont know if what i consider turning freely is correct. but right now i am assuming there is a problem. seems the pushrod isnt long enough, but maybe the lifters take much longer to pump up than i thought?
perhaps if i torqued it to 22lbs ?
im under the impression that the pushrods shouldnt be able to rotate freely no matter where rocker is, right?
i want to make sure i do it 100% correct this time.
what should i do/try?
am i doing the install correctly?
could it be that after i hand rotated the crank, i didnt wait long enough for the lifter to pump up? i rotated the crank and then spun the oil pump and went right to slowly tightening the rocker while twisting the pushrod. should i have waited a bit after spinning the oil pump?
i was thinking about marking the top of the valve stem with the dry erase marker and checking where the rocker is riding on the valve stem, but id the pushrod isnt tight, would this be a waste of time, or would doing this help me determine the problem? i assume that if i do this it will show that the rocker isnt rolling dead center on the valve stem (but again, i have no real knowledge, just guessing).
if you read all this, thanks!
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