The shop manual says one and a half turns. That is how I have always done it. If you go with less then you are not preloading it spring inside the lifter. This spring pressure is necessary to reposition the piston inside the lifter and refill the load area with oil for the next valve opening.
One and a half with OEM lifters is good, but I've learned with typical aftermarket lifters, one turn is better. These are pretty forgiving as long as you stay within their "happy" range. You'll know if you've gone too far...the effect will be pretty much like if you adjusted solid lifters too tight. You will lose compression and your engine will feel "flat." It may backfire and it will generally misfire oddly at idle. If you find Sealed Power lifters, those are as close to the OEM as I've seen and you can tighten them 1 1/2 turns. Melling lifters aren't too bad, either...especially if you can find some made around 20 years ago or older. All of them are flat crazy expensive. The shop manual was written for the use of OEM lifters and they may or may not work the same as what you have. Good luck.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
Whatever preload specification you choose to use, the position of the cam lobe when you're adjusting is important. A "running" adjustment is an absolute waste of time, no matter what all the purveyors of urban legends say. There's an adjustment procedure known as "companion cylinder valve adjustment" where the movement of the rocker arms on one cylinder is used to be sure the one halfway around the firing order has both valves fully closed. It works on either solid or hydraulic lifters. Try an archive search- - - -I've outlined the procedure many times over the past several years. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I've had a lot of valve train issues over the years since I had my 235 rebuilt. After driving it for 3 or4 years the first set of new lifters, some would bleed down when the engine would set. I replaced the rocker shaft assembly with a NOS one, I've broken 2 push rods, I replaced all the new lifters with new Melon lifters. Now it's just a little noisy. I'm going to adjust them next week. Wish I could just lift the hood up like most of you all. If I just had a dollar for every time I pulled the seat, shifter and floor out of that thing! Thanks for the Info!
From the service literature: The tappet plunger’s range of motion from fully extended to fully compressed is .150”, and the proper adjustment is to pre-load the tappet ½-way (.075”, 1½ turns of the adjuster), the adjuster thread is 7∕16-20 NF = .050" per full turn.
Thanks again for all the info., does anyone have a source for the push rods with the groves on the end already in them? The after market push rods I have don't have them and I would rather buy them with the grooves if possible.
I don't think anybody sells them now. It's a pretty simple procedure to put a groove in an existing one with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool. It doesn't need to be deep, or precise. Ditto for relieving the pushrod cup in the lifter to allow air to escape from the body- - - - -a shallow cut to allow a tiny seep leak is all that's needed. Smith Brothers can build just about anything you want from scratch.
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I am in the one turn group. Especially with aftermarket lifters. That being said, and HRL and I disagree on this, but over the years I have had a few motors that you just could not get the valves adjusted using either the shop manual method or other static methods. Bleed down, weak plunger springs, air in the lifter, who really knows why. In those instances, I have to adjust them with the motor running.
I know, sounds counter intuitive, but you turn the idle down as low as possible without the motor stalling, and then the juggling begins because you have to get a wrench on the moving rocker and a screwdriver on the adjuster. I use an old vacco screw holding driver to do the adjustment and a welding glove on one hand.
Loosen the screw until it taps, turn it back in until it stops tapping, then one turn, 1/4 turn at a time for the pre load. It’s a bit of a pain but sometimes it’s the only way.
The first photo is the screw holding screwdriver I use for a running adjustment. The second is my vintage snap on valve adjuster. I use that for stock non running adjustment. Gotta love a nice vintage USA tool!
More issues with my Hyd. lifters. I got it adjusted as good as I could, third from the back has always been a issue even with the groove cut in the end of the push rod. Then about a month ago the loud ticking started again. This time the 5th rod from the back start heavy ticking and when I got the valve cover off it was loose! I could shake it! Adjusted it and it was fine for about 30 miles and started heavy ticking again. I am so over these Hyd. lifters! After getting the motor rebuilt with new lifters and cam, braking 2 push rods, buying another set of Melon lifters and a NOS rocker shaft assembly and the loud ticking continues. This week I'm going to open it up again and take the side lifter cover off and see if the liter has collapsed or what! What would it take to which to solid lifters? Do I have to change the cam? If so can I pull it with out pulling the motor? And what would be a good source of parts?
Yes, a cam change will be necessary, since the lobe profile is different on solid lifter and hydraulic cams. It's theoretically possible to change a cam with the engine in the frame, but it's not something I'd be willing to try. Finding a suitable replacement cam right now is going to be a challenge, since most of them are "out of stock" at all the vendors I've checked recently. I'd suggest finding a cam regrinding service and getting a solid lift profile ground onto the cam you're running now. There's usually some new solid lifters available on Ebay.
Recently, I found a man near my shop who has a cam grinding machine and 50+ years of experience. I had him put a Melling CCS-1 lobe on a 235 cam, and it looks like it's brand new. Drop me a PM and I'll share his contact information with you. He's 90+ years old and currently on chemotherapy, so I don't want to publish his contact info on the open forum. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
If you want to keep the hydraulics, stop buying newly manufactured lifters. They will just not do the job. What you need is either NOS GM lifters (55-58 or 59-62 depending on the motor), or aftermarket like TRW, Sealed Power, Johnson, McQuay-Norris, that were manufactured at least 35 years ago, USA made lifters. It sucks I know, but for whatever reason, the off shore manufactures just can't seem to make a lifter of factory high quality. So kick the bushes and hold out for real USA made lifters.
My brother in law that works as a mechanic at a Toyota dealership was telling me the same thing. When I replaced them all the last time I was told to buy Melon lifters. After running them for a few years, Now I had one that I could wiggle the push rod. Tightened it up, drove for 35 miles or so, started clicking, now I can wiggle the same push rod again. Come to think of it, the first set of lifters worked fine for 2 or 3 years! Thanks for the input.
Are those Melon lifters seedless? Melling makes some pretty good ones, but they're expensive, and probably made in the same offshore sweatshop as all the rest of them. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
