Cold. If you used a new modern head gasket it should not need to be re torqued. Have you got hydraulics or solids? let me give my NAPA a call.
Solid lifters my friend. I used a Felpro gasket from napa. They offered copper and regular and I got the regular
Unless it came with specific instructions to re-torque it doesn't need to be re torqued. Let me find you a part number for your lifter. SEP AT 992 I did tell you wrong on the price it is 5.85 you can get second day delivery on line but your local store should either have one or be able to have one by tomorrow. The hydraulics are 4.47 Both sealed power (federal mogul). Tell them it is a 55 chevy 150 if they can't find it for your old heap.
I appreciate that my friend. I read that it didn't matter one way or another if it was re torqued. I also saw people say to do it cold and others said hot so I did it warm. I put the wrench on 92 lbs and it turned the bolts under the valve cover but didn't do anything to the bolts along the intake/exhaust edge so I don't know.
It would be best to torque all bolts if you are going to torque any of them. The idea is twofold...proper clamping pressure and even pressure. Torqueing some head bolts to a different setting than others totally defeats the purpose of using a torque wrench in the first place. Ray
I went through the full rotation on the head bolts but the only ones that turned any further were the bolts under the valve cover
You should show these guys a picture of the lifter. Some of them think you have a modern style lifter. You have a tall lifter that's known as a bottle style. It is hollow and does have a pressed in top. If you try and use a short modern solid body you need to change the pushrods to longer ones. Yes these are very expensive because only the old Chevy's and GMC sixes used them and there is little demand for them. You can get singles on eBay. There are also two different ones. One for steel cams and one for cast iron cams. Research this as you could have either one in your engine and you can tell by looking at the gear that drives the distributer. The normal break in will work if you get a new one. Your best bet would be to do like you have been doing and just push it back together and run it. It can't fall apart while running under normal conditions. Frank.
Yep that's the plan. I've been driving it all over for the last couple days and all is good to go. One thing I've noticed is, when I set the valves cold (added .006 to the normal settings) the car ran fine. When I adjusted them hot, the car has little backfires on deceleration. Someone told me it was supposed to do that. Is that correct?
No it shouldn't backfire, sometimes an exhaust leak will make a deacceleration backfire. But if running the valves slightly looser helps, that's fine. I run my 235 at .006 I and .010 E. but the 302 GMC likes .010 I and .014 E.(hot). My 235 has the modern lifters and the GMC has the milk bottles.
This isn't my lifter but one I found on google. This is the style I have although I don't remember seeing a hole towards the bottom when I pulled them out. Mine is split exactly where that line is but I only saw it on the one in question, none of the others had a noticeable line. My donut gasket between my manifold and head pipe isn't quite sealed (I got tired of messing with it and gave up). Could that be causing the backfiring and will it screw up any valves driving like that until I get around to fixing it?