I posted the same thing on CZ, but know there are different people here too...

OK so I took the 3 day weekend to do valve springs, add 1.6RR's, lt4 KM, and while in there I pulled the TCS, cruise control and a few other little things ...

After about 15 minutes of runtime and a few revs of the motor with no load I could hear the rocker(s) have loosened up, pulled the valve covers and readjusted them all even though only 1 or 2 were loose. BTW all adjustments were done with the motor running. I was all done on Monday morning and still had time to do the whole BBQ thing with friends/family, actually it wasn't bad at all maybe about 10 hours in all.

Last night after work I scanned the car and checked for knock retard and I was getting some false knock when there was a decent increase in throttle (probably my bored MAF), so tuned some of that down and decided to actually road test the car, not easy to do with all the cops around my area...

So I held the car in 1st, and from about a 30MPH roll blew the tires away and bounced off the rev limiter (6500) twice, whoops , yeah I know not a good dea on the first test drive...

I got further up the road and could smell burning oil, so pulled over to make sure everything looked good, then went home doing nothing more then flashing the stall every once in a while (it just sounds good ). By the time I got it back home it was already dark out I popped the hood and could hear an audible tap but not as loud as when the rocker loosened on day 1. Also not sure if I was actually hearing anything serious or it it was just the louder RR's so I scaned the car and nothing was wrong at idle, but a couple blips of the throttle recorded Knock retard that was a little more then earlier but still might be false. The tap is so light I am not even sure if it is the rockers or it's more like an exhaust leak tap, but I didn't touch the exhaust this weekend and it is all stock...

So here are the questions:

• How long does it take to burn off the oil that might have gotten on the exhaust when adjusting the rockers?
• Could rocker(s) loosen a little and cause a slight tapping but not the clanking of when they come really loose?
• What else could cause this slight tapping and Knock retard when blipping the throttle?

Thanks,
John

 

1.) The oil might take a few days to completely burn off. Depends. Just check to make sure no additional oil is leaking from anywhere. It really should given all you did were the rockers and just removed the valve covers.

2.) Yes. I never adjusted mine when the car was running. Just seems like too much of a PITA when I can take my time and not be worried about splashing any oil here and there. Try doing it with the car off and turn the pushrod until you feel it start to grip. From that point, turn it 1/4 to 1/2. I used 1/4 and personally don't think you need any more than that. Should run fine.

3.) I was never able to get all my knock to go away and would occassionally get a couple of degrees. Check your exhaust also and make sure that it is not slightly vibrating against something which could help cause some knock. Definitely if they rockers are loose, they will cause a little.

 

1. make sure that u didnt over tighten the valve covers because it could bend the lip and cause oil to get onto the manifolds.

2. could your lifters be making this slight tapping noise? did u ever trim your valvecovers to clear the 1.6's, if not ur rocker arms could be tapping the tops or if u have the valve covers on too tight it could do the same.

3. again your rockers could be hitting the valve covers at hard acceleration.

the reason i keep going back to the valve covers is because my mechanic over tightened mine bending them a little causing an oil leak and the rocker arms just bearly hit them under hard acceleration.

 

OK after looking into it last night it sounds like a slight tap that you can barely pinpoint, but when I rev the motor up off idle you can really start hearing it. So I had the wife hold it at about 1200 rpm's and I kept sticking my head in there trying to track it down and it is definitly under the valve cover on the driver side.

But I thought all these were tight before the test drive, I guess there could maybe be one that I missed when going back over the poly locks. I just now have to pull the VC and figure out which one.

Anyone know of any easy way to track it down or should I just redo them all on that bank?

 

I don't think I did, but in my frustration I did use an air ratchet to tighten the passenger side cover when trying to wrap up quickly, but I didn't have the tq set very high...


I did not trim the VC's because they did not appear to be rubbing, I thought only the pro mags needed to have the VC clearanced?

Also thanks for the heads up on the possibly hitting the top of the VC, when I pull it off I will check that first just in case it is hitting there...


I think the knock is false and caused by this tapping, and thanks again for the ideas...

 

I was going to do it that way then got tired of trying to pull the plugs then going to have to find TDC so I just did it while running. I have done it a couple times for different people but there were not the same type of rockers, they were stamped 1.6 rockers onmid 80's trucks set up for truck pulls and I did those using the running method without issues, I think my car just hates me...