Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

I got window screwed!

 

Skins….
Nice..

 

That sucks…

 

Never have enough rods.
Need like 15 more..

 

Looks like she's waiting on you to hurry up.

 

Last time gas prices went nuts I ended up commuting to work with my old F-250 for a week.

The 250 is a dinosaur from another time with a 460 V8. It gets a reliable 7.5 mpg in town.

It was a very expensive week...

 

Wish that I had a little welder handy.

 

Pffft...spring tension hold 'er together for awhile

 

Nope engine captain, we have to be cross trained as emt and medics , but I ride around for a living pointing a flashlight at stuff

 

That’s a Maine staple right there!

 

Well fellers, today on Past Tech with Rusty we are adjusting the valves on the zero turn, not really Past Tech as it is only 16 years old.

What started this is a slight leak at the valve cover, just enough to attract dirt. The gunk build up is especially bad for an air cooled engine -- turns out the gunk is a good insulator, here holding in the heat right in the most heat sensitive area of the engine - the valves.



A few bolts hold the valve cover -- nice and clean inside! 518 hours, amazing what regular oil changes will do.

Here we see the rocker arms, exhaust on the left and intake on the right. They pivot on the nut thing in the center - the part we can't see is round. At the tops are the push rods that work the rockers and at the bottoms they push on the valves. The springs you see hold the valves shut.



Here is a top view, again the rocker pivots on the larger center section. We will measure the clearance (lash) between the valve stem and the rocker arm at the bottom center of the photo.



Now with the piston at top dead center of the compression stroke to insure both valves are fully shut, we have our feeler gauge in place. It should slide with a slight drag.



There is a tiny T15 head lock screw hidden behind the pointer, loosen it a bit to free the nut that does the actual adjusting.



Turn the nut while sliding the feeler gauge to get the desired drag. Then while holding the wrench tighten the tiny T15 lock screw in the recess. The intake and exhaust usually have different settings, the exhaust being larger as it gets hotter and expands more. I think these were .005 intake and .007 exhaust, numbers don't stick in my head well.



Clean the valve cover with some kerosene, a new gasket and a spark plug just because I was there and back to mowing.
This was the first time these have ever been adjusted. The intake was slightly tight and the exhaust slightly loose.

Mechanical (versus hydraulic) adjusted valves used to be common in vehicles decades ago, the last domestic vehicle engine to have mechanical lifters to my knowledge was the 1979 Chrysler slant six, it was adjusted with the engine idling. In 1980 it was fitted with hydraulic lifters as it was getting more and more difficult to service the lifters in the emissions crowded engine compartments of the day.

Early Ford Ranger/Bronco 2 with the 2.8 V6 used mechanical lifters later than the slant 6, however this engine was built in Cologne, Germany so I'm not calling it a domestic engine.

 

used to tighten the valves on chevy engine with it running, back off till it rattles, tight 1/4 to half turn

 

I have seen people do that on Chevs with hydraulic lifters -- I only ever had one Chev.
On AMC/Jeep engines you torque the rocker pivots down to a torque spec, the pivot will be flush (tight) to the boss on the cylinder head.

This is the AMC set up, the bridge holds the pivots in the proper orientation.

 

could the 6" be mistaken for 6' to mess with the inspector?

and lime green

 

What ruler you using to measure, asking for a friend.

 

Past Tech with Rusty extra:

Something I forget to add, notice how the bolts have distorted the valve cover over the years? If you put this back on this way it might damage the gasket and leak. Leaking is what got us here to begin with...



This is easy to fix. Place a block of wood under the rail and tap the depressions back down flat with a small hammer, an appropriate sized punch can be useful as well -- if you have someone to hold the valve cover while you are hammering and punching.

If the metal ends up slightly bowed the opposite way that won't be a problem, the bolt will pull it back flat.



The valve cover is actually two pieces with a one way reed valve and a plastic mesh filter. This is part of the crankcase ventilation system.

 

Morning all

 

Gasket
Gasket?
We don’t need no stinking gasket.
Lol,,,, had a hammer the correct size to do that…
Don’t know what happened to it….

 

Good morning friends! Hope everyone has a great Saturday

We caught 4 yesterday. My wife and I both caught one on the first cast and I caught two more. Kids got skunked but they sure tried and had fun.

 

For the record, that is not my house in that first photo