The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Adjusting the valves with engine being cold

I want to adjust the valves with the engine being cold first before I start it up and then I'll do it again when it is hot. The problem I'm having is figuring out when each piston is top dead center. I'm working on it solo so if there is an easy way of knowing when the piston is top dead center that would be great. Thanks, Bert

Watch the valves when you rotate the crank. When neither move you have both valves close.

You should already have the plugs out, put a piece of thick wire into the spark plug hole and watch it.... you'll see the piston hit TDC (the wire will not move up anymore).

go to tech tips there are a couple of versions there. it is really simple put the ball on the pointer set the 6 specified valves, turn the engine 180 degrees and set the next 6 and that is all there is to it. I don't know exactly which ones at which point, that is why there is a tech tip. OOPS I mean 360 degrees, one full engine revolution, one half cam revolution.

Turn the flywheel to TDC. Once there see if you can giggle the pushrods on #1 cylinder. If they are not loose, turn flywheel one full rotation and try again.

My experience has been that when set cold and checked after the engine temp has normalized there is little difference. I know the engineers stressed that the engine MUST be hot when setting valve lash and probably had good reason for that but my experience has been the opposite. I would certainly recommend that one recheck when hot after setting cold but don't be surprised if no re-adjustment is required.

I have always set valves .002 looser when cold and then found them to be real close when hot.

The graphs that are in the various shop manuals on this show a variation of the clearance while it is warming up. However, if you look at the cold value and the normalized engine temperature value, they are identical. I agree with Tiny.

That's a dangerous precedent to set. Folks will start talking bad about you.