Rockers WTF!!!

[curado]

I have everything off the motor, no plugs installed, have just been trying to build compression on cyl #1. It was the lowest (75 PSI).

I tried torquing to 14 ft lbs, 23 ft lbs, putting the ORIGINAL rockers & pushrods back on it, adjusting the angles so they were perfect, anything I could think of. It went from making 75 psi to making 0!!!

I put cyl #1 on the exhaust stroke and took off the intake rocker. The valve spring had about .200" lift built up in it I would say? This is on a closed valve.

My ONLY guess at this point is that I had it too loose and now the lifter is pumped up to max and needs to bleed off some oil. That's as far as I can guess... I don't even know how to pull one of the damn things out to check.

Click to read more...

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

make sure your pushrods are actually seating in the lifter plunger, its rare but it can stick on the lifter cradle.... hope ya checked each cyl about 3 times for compression

 

[curado]

I experimented last night. I left the intake valve in the full open position (spring tightly compressed). I crank it this morning and whammo, 75 psi again. I put it back on the exhaust stroke, took the intake rocker off, put the rocker back on, and no compression again.

So the lifter is expanding itself under internal spring pressure and not contracting very easily (multiple strokes of cranking was not enough to get it contracted at all).

Going to redo the whole mess, relube everything, put the 1.9s in and just start it up. I'll check compression after running it at 1900 rpm for a minute or so to see where everything has settled in at.

As far as preload goes, this set of lifters is apparently not going the normal route. There's no way for me to accurately check it other than listen for valve clatter.

 

[phat_ridegt]

this is going to sound dumb, but make sure you have the pedistal on correctly, and not upside down...i found this to be a problem one time lol

 

[curado]

this is going to sound dumb, but make sure you have the pedistal on correctly, and not upside down...i found this to be a problem one time lol

My problem's 100% solved. Car runs great.

1) Pedestals modified for clearance with the 1.9s
2) Rockers bolted on to spec torque (23 ft lbs with reusable style bolts)
3) Manually cranked engine so that each valve spent about 5 mins in the open position (enough time for the spring pressure to bleed each lifter down)
4) Fired right up, idles smooth and runs great!

I don't follow how you could possibly check lifter preload on a hydraulic lifter motor. To get accurate results you'd need to substitute in a dry lifter when taking measurements.... my car would throw ya way off if you did it the way the guide reads.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

Talk about a headache, Im glad you got it up and going finally.

 

[phat_ridegt]

good to hear, so what was the fix? ive never heard of ANYONE having to bleed lifters down to install rockers....?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

I experimented last night. I left the intake valve in the full open position (spring tightly compressed). I crank it this morning and whammo, 75 psi again. I put it back on the exhaust stroke, took the intake rocker off, put the rocker back on, and no compression again.

So the lifter is expanding itself under internal spring pressure and not contracting very easily (multiple strokes of cranking was not enough to get it contracted at all).

Going to redo the whole mess, relube everything, put the 1.9s in and just start it up. I'll check compression after running it at 1900 rpm for a minute or so to see where everything has settled in at.

As far as preload goes, this set of lifters is apparently not going the normal route. There's no way for me to accurately check it other than listen for valve clatter.

what your describing is nothing more than a perfectly functioning hyrdraulic lifter full of oil with very little bleedby of the reed valve. if you had left it longer the lifters would have their plungers colapse.

its also one of the reason's why you test the compression of each cylinder multiple times to reduce the chance of this affecting the results

 

[Biff]

I'm kinda disappointed in the performance of my 1.9s.
Shoulda went with a cam...

Don't forget to tune/adjust your shift points higher to take advantage of the higher RPMs allowed by the 1.9s

Glad ya got 'er done! Sounds like it was a royal pain in the ass

 

[curado]

I'm kinda disappointed in the performance of my 1.9s.
Shoulda went with a cam...

I just hope I went the right route for now because I wasn't wanting to do timing chain and springs. Shift points will remain at stock I guess. I have a total of $90 in this install.