help with chevy 292 assembly please?

i am trying to ***emble my 292 straight six, first motor i have ever really worked on.

i have built some motorcycle motors before so i am not a complete idiot but i dont want to screw this up so i need a little help please.

heres what i am trying to do..

i am at the point of putting in the lifters, push rods and rockers.

i lubed up the cam really well, put the motor at TDC, so pistons 1 and 6 are all the way up. i checked to make sure looking from the bottom since i have the oil pan off, the timing marks on the crank and cam are lined up also, so i am sure i got that right.

i put 2 lifters each into cylinders 1 and 6, put the pushrods in and tightened up the rockers until there was no play, without compressing the hydraulic lifters or springs. i could rotate the rods with my fingers. a friend told me this was the way to do it.

i then turned the motor over by hand and noticed the rockers are loose at certain points of the rotation, i mean very loose as in rattling all over the place when i felt them. but all 4 valves open and close, how far i dont know.

so i stopped what i was doing to ask for advice in case i am doing something wrong. maybe this is how its supposed to be?

my buddy told me after this turn the motor over until 2 more pistons are at the top of their travel and repeat the lifter, pushrod, and tighen the rockers, but i never got this far.

so my question is, am i doing this right, or do i need to tighten the rockers more? if so, how tight? i have feeler gauges and plenty of tools, torque wrenches etc. but if i tighten it up the lifters or springs will compress? i pumped up the lifters with oil so as instructed.

everything is new, and the pushrods are the same length as the ones i am replacing.

any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks

mike

 

you have the right idea. at tdc both valves should be closed and the push rods should have the most play. did you make sure the lifters have oil in them. stock valve adjustment is one full turn past zero lash. it's a good idea to err on the side of too loose, it won't fire up with the valves open. can you verify tdc with balancer or valve sequence? good luck!

 

when you lined up the marks on the cam gear and crank gear the valves on no.1 need to be in the closed posision, the lifters should be all the way down,

 

I just go thru the firing order, starting with #1. I ***ume they're hydraulic lifters?

Get the #1 piston at TDC, so that both lifters are down all the way (one or both lifters for #6 will be up a little bit). Put in the valvetrain for both #1 valves, adjust the rocker arm nut to where the rocker arm just won't rattle any more. I don't use the pushrod turning method because you can still turn it when there's some load on the lifter.

then turn the crank 1/3 of a turn so #5 piston is at tdc, and install the valvetrain for that one.

Go thru the firing order until they're all in, then turn each rocker nut an additional 1/2 to 1 turn to preload the lifters.

Make sure none of them are loose as you turn the engine part of a turn, check, turn some more, check, etc. They should all be adjusted properly now.

 

Hummmm - LIKE THE MAN SAID DID YOU OIL UP THOSE HYDRAULIC LIFTERS?
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE RIGHT WAY YOUR WAY THERE WAY MY WAY - BUT
ASK BECAUSE THERE IS AWAY - SIDE NOTE OR ? DID YOU DO ANY WORK ON
THE HEAD IF SO I WOULD LIKE TO HERE ABOUT IT - THINGS WITH OUT LUMP PORTS

 

I did oil the lifters, and the head has the lumps.

 

The way you are going is ok simple i don't want to confuse you here
you can and will have to go back and reset the lifters.
Are you going to do any porting at all? Some were on the in liners site
there was a picture of a mexican road race prepared head that looked
interesting to try and do.

 

sorry, i didn't read where you oiled the lifters. well no question about it, if the pushrods have a bunch of slop then either the lifter isn't staying up or the cam wasn't on the heal for the valve adjustment. did you get a higher lift cam with longer duration to go with the lump ports? might check that. other than that double check cam orientation and tdc. i bet you will get it figured out.

 

Hello, I'm new here but I'm an engine builder so I can probably help.

You either have the cam/crank out of time, probably not if the marks are facing each other, or you are not on the right stroke when you adjusted the valves.

You need to be on the compression stroke for the cylinder you are adjusting.

To know if you are on the compression stroke, turn the motor over, clockwise looking at the front, until you see the lifter raise up in the hole for the intake valve on the cylinder you are adjusting. Watch the lifter rise and keep turning until you see it go back down again.

Keep turning the engine over slowly with something in the spark plug hole, long screwdriver or something similar and feel for the piston to come to the top. Once you feel it go to the top and then start to go back down, stop and back it up slightly until you feel the top again.

Check your mark on your timing cover to see that its aligned with the "0" mark. Its at this point the cylinder is at TDC of the compression stroke. The mark on the timing cover will only work for cylinder #1. Adjust the nut down until you have slight drag on the pushrod, and no more up and down play. After that turn the nut another 3/4 turn down. Its done.
Do both the intake and exhaust for that cylinder.

Repeat for all cylinders watching for the intake to go up and down and then verify that you keep going slowly until you feel the piston is at the top. You can do cylinders in any order but its quickest to follow the firing order starting with #1. Just make sure there is no up and down play on pushrod before going down the 3/4. Also make sure you are on the compression stroke for that cylinder.

When you have it adjusted properly the pushrod should be down in the lifter between .040" to .060". The top of the little piston/plunger inside the lifter would be around .050" down below the little clip inside the lifter. That would be perfect.

Have fun, you are almost there!

Mm

 

any luck figuring this out?