Shady, I just did this last week. I was paranoid and anxious that I was going to screw things up because I have never adjusted valves on any engine in my entire life.

It turns out that I was overthinking everything. It went back together perfectly and runs better than it ever has in the last 5 years in my possession and 25 years in the ownership of my friend.

Anyway, I followed Jerry's tutorial posted in the Tech Tips at the top of the Engine Section.

I set the cold lash exactly as he suggested - .008 for intake valves and .012 for exhaust valves. It started right up, ran perfectly and didn't bend any pushrods.

I then did two hot valve adjustments per the manual after several hot/cold driving cycles to double check everything. I quieted down a ticking that was likely due to a worn rocker. I used a tiny feeler gauge in the dead center of the valve stem to get a more accurate adjustment.

The truck has noticeably more power and much quicker acceleration. I'm mad at myself for being too scared to do a valve adjustment earlier on in my curatorship of this truck.

1950 Chevrolet 3100 (Ol' Roy)

1939 Packard Standard Eight Coupe (The Phantom) | 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (The Bismarck) | 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe |1966 Ford Mustang (Little Red) | 1969 Pontiac GTO (The Dishpit) I 1979 Ford F-100 | 1976 Ford F-150 (Big Red) | 1995 Ford F-150 (Newt)