You can do it with the engine running at idle. Take an old valve cover, and cut the top out of it, leaving the sides intact. Bolt it in place of the stock cover. This is so you can reach the rocker nuts without spraying oil everywhere. With the engine running, you back off each rocker, one at a time, until it clatters or taps, then turn it back until the clatter goes away and turn another 1/2 turn. Do this for each rocker and you are done. Only for hydraulics though.
If your starting from scratch, tighten each rocker to the point of being able to spin the push rod with your fingers. Then stop, start the motor and back each one off to the point of clatter then tighten to the point the ticking stops. Then tighten to a half to 3/4 turn more. If your planing on winding the motor do a 1/2 turn.
About those rocker arms:http://www.mre-books.com/interchange/interchange5.html good book to have on SBF's.
Yes they are. they are torque to 20 Ft-LBS. If they not torque they will have a habit of loosing up. Torque them by bring the cylinder up to top dead center and torque both rocker then move on to the next one. The only factory adjustable rockers are the 289 HiPos. They are set at .022 cold and .018 hot.
You guys really need to read the link I posted above,in 1963 they were adjustable ,stud mounted rockers were used on 221,260 and 289's thru 1966 and some early '67's also.Before better heads became available early heads were used on later 289-302's to raise compression and to have adjustable rockers and not just on solid lifter Hi-Po heads.There are still "build on a budget" guys that use the '65-66 heads and add larger 302 valves or in some cases the Chevy 1.84 intake valves and 1.5 exhaust valves.So if you torque those early adjustable rockers to 20 ft lbs,Good Luck!
Sorry, incorrect. All 289s are adjustable. It's true that only the HiPo uses solid lifters but the hydraulic lifters on the rest need to be adjusted as well. The rocker system on the 289 is not like the 352-390 where all you do is torque the rocker shaft down and you're done.
J Town Newbe, Small Block Fords do have an "adjustable" drivetrain. With the lifter on the heel of the cam the adjusting nut on top of the rocker arm should be turned down until the pushrod just stops spinning in your fingers. This is considered to be "0 lash". At this point you tighten the rocker arm nut down another 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn to preload the lifter and valvetrain. Do this with all 16 lifters on a V8 spining the engine over by hand. I have heard of the adjusting when the engine is running method but have never tried it myself. Once these initial adjustments are made they do not normally need redone as "maintenance" Good luck. Don
The Jalopy Journal
