Among many issues with the car, I though I heard a clacking from the drivers head. I took off the valve cover and gave everything a shake and nothing seems broken (though a collapsed lifter or slightly damaged pushrod could be an issue). Anyway, every car I have ever had was equipped with aftermarket rockers with shaft adjustment, so I am completely lost.
What do I do to adjust these stamped style rockers that are actually mounted to pedestals in the head? I did a google search and found lots of conflicting info.
Can they be adjusted individually at all? I just want to make sure everything is adjusted properly so I can eliminate the head as the source of any issue? How would I know if a lifter is collapsed? Should I remove the whole rocker assembly to pull the rods to make sure they are not bent? Is there a good MOPAR-specific book I should just buy?
What engine?
If there are no adjustments, then you can assume you have hydraulic lifters. Has the car been sitting? They can clatter if one is stuck or you have low oil pressure.
sorry...its a mid 70s 383 with 452 heads. Hasn't been sitting, actually bought it and drove it a bunch (500 miles) before noticing the clatter. I was told it had a purple cam and was hydraulic. Oil pressure is actually good and high all the time (I am pretty sure someone put the "high volume spring" in the oil pump on this engine.
Maybe one IS stuck! Should I just hand rotate the engine a bunch and go through each lifter as begins to move the valve?
stock rockers are not adjustable. you have to remove the rocker shaft with all the rockers on it. check the pushrods and the cup part of the rocker arm for wear. there is a special tool that allows you to remove the lifters without removing the intake, its called a hydraulic lifter removal tool. I would remove them 1 by 1 and check them. make sure they are not collapsed or concave on the bottom.
check the casting date of your 383, they stopped making them in 1971. it could be a 400 or a 383 with later heads.
mykenytemare Wrote:sorry...its a mid 70s 383 with 452 heads. Hasn't been sitting, actually bought it and drove it a bunch (500 miles) before noticing the clatter. I was told it had a purple cam and was hydraulic. Oil pressure is actually good and high all the time (I am pretty sure someone put the "high volume spring" in the oil pump on this engine.
Maybe one IS stuck! Should I just hand rotate the engine a bunch and go through each lifter as begins to move the valve?
Stock rockers on a BB are non-adjustable. The only thing to be concerned about when they are put on is the oil holes aren't pointing straight up.
One thing you can do is pull the valve covers and pull the coil wire. Spin the motor over and look at each rocker arm and valve as it goes thru it's cycle. If you see any that are not going down as far as the others, or one that looks like it's not moving as the others, then you found the culprit. You may actually hear the one making the noise. Also, check the valves themselves, make sure there are none that are sitting lower than the others (busted valve spring or bent valve).
Just from experience, I'd pull the intake as well so I could watch everything at once. (ie making sure your lifters are all going the same amount, and spinning as they lift.)
Thanks for the awesome advice and info...
...I will have to get to this when I can get the car into a closed space to work (been windy, rainy, or cold pretty much every day for the last few weeks here and its making dirveway work difficult)
Thanks again, hopefully its nothing too bad.
The lifters could also be clogged. They are relatively easy to take apart and clean. My 1968 Dodge FSM shows the procedure. The FSM doesn't mention it, but I put them in oil after cleaning and then push down on the top to fill them with oil. Also it is recommended to replace them in the same place they came out of (don't mix them up). It's also almost impossible to tell if any are weak without pulling the rockers off completely because some of them will already be pushing on a push rod. After pulling the rockers you can use the push rods to put pressure on the lifters one at a time and see if any are weak.