Sorry it’s long, even had chat gpt rewrite it.
My main question is: with stock rockers, shouldn’t I be able to just tighten them down to the head without setting valve lash?
I have a new to me ’93 Lightning that started smoking after it warmed up. I did a compression test on a few cylinders until I found a bad one, then stopped and began tearing it down, thinking I had a bad head gasket. I removed the upper and lower intake manifolds, distributor, and valve covers, and saw that the previous owner had installed Crane 1.72 roller rockers.
The cylinder with no compression had a broken hold-down bolt on the intake, which I figured was the cause of the problem. At that point, I changed direction and installed stock rockers and hold-downs in place of the rollers. Since stock rockers aren’t adjustable, I rotated through all the cylinders and tightened the bolts fully.
A few weeks later, I was ready to restart it. When I went to reinstall the distributor, I noticed the engine was hard to turn in some spots and easier in others. While trying to find top dead center for cylinder #1, I didn’t feel any compression, so I guessed at TDC (might be 180 out) and dropped in the distributor. Now, when I crank the engine, it’s hard to spin and the rotation feels inconsistent.
I know this could be a timing issue, but the fact that it was already hard to turn before I installed the distributor makes me think something else might be wrong. When I tightened everything down, the rockers weren’t depressing the valves — they still had a slight amount of movement when wiggled.
Any thoughts are welcome.
My main question is: with stock rockers, shouldn’t I be able to just tighten them down to the head without setting valve lash?
I have a new to me ’93 Lightning that started smoking after it warmed up. I did a compression test on a few cylinders until I found a bad one, then stopped and began tearing it down, thinking I had a bad head gasket. I removed the upper and lower intake manifolds, distributor, and valve covers, and saw that the previous owner had installed Crane 1.72 roller rockers.
The cylinder with no compression had a broken hold-down bolt on the intake, which I figured was the cause of the problem. At that point, I changed direction and installed stock rockers and hold-downs in place of the rollers. Since stock rockers aren’t adjustable, I rotated through all the cylinders and tightened the bolts fully.
A few weeks later, I was ready to restart it. When I went to reinstall the distributor, I noticed the engine was hard to turn in some spots and easier in others. While trying to find top dead center for cylinder #1, I didn’t feel any compression, so I guessed at TDC (might be 180 out) and dropped in the distributor. Now, when I crank the engine, it’s hard to spin and the rotation feels inconsistent.
I know this could be a timing issue, but the fact that it was already hard to turn before I installed the distributor makes me think something else might be wrong. When I tightened everything down, the rockers weren’t depressing the valves — they still had a slight amount of movement when wiggled.
Any thoughts are welcome.
