as i was painting the valve covers on my 351w motor i noticed the rocker arms were all loose with the exception of about three of them ( i think they were all on the left side). is this a problem? what is resulting from this and how easy are they to adjust properly. i dont know much about this so it might sound stupid.

chris

Hey Chris,
There are no stupid questions, knowledge is power.....
From the last Windsor engine ive seen, i take it you have solid lifters that ride on the camshaft... solid lifters require maintenence after so many miles, unlike hydraulic ones. Im not quite sure what would be causing the left bank to run more loose than the right, but either way, any too loose are not good on the valvetrain. you can bend/break pushrods, bend valves, drop valves, etc. but if you catch it in time you shouldnt have this problem thats after a lot of miles with it out of whack. As far as valve timing/adjusting? every place ive seen online that were professional, have different ways to do this. you'll probably have less headaches if you take it somewhere, unless someone on the board knows how to put it in text easier.... I was shown, and i cant describe it that well...
Hope this helps,
~*Adam*~

What year Windsor?

How many miles on it?

the motor is a 1969 stock windsor. has under 10k miles on rebuild.

chris

ive also always noticed this ticking noise at idle. could the loose rockers be the source of this annoying sound? what is it then?

chris

Ok, solid lifters sound like they might be the issue, like i said before, they require maintenence.... when the engine was assembled, im assuming the rockers were tightened either cold, or when warm and just left be, on most older v8s, you warm the engine, tighten the rocks, run it for a lil while let it get a good break in, 50-100 miles, whutever, then retighten them to specs. this allows for wear and allows a proper seating for pushrod ends and rocker fulcrums.
one thing you can try if its just a tap, and not loose, is a $7.99 bottle of Lucas oil treatment, works great, it was my #1 selling item back in the days of my store.
Hope This Helps
~*Adam*~

Ok,

69 Windsor do not come with solid lifter cams unless you added one. They have non-adjustible hydraulic lifters and rockers. But there are three ways that they can be adjusted.

1) longer push rods. You can get longer push rods at your local parts store. They come in incremental lengths from stock.

2) Comp cams makes an adjustible kit. It has 16 collars and 16 lock nuts. They replace the stock lock nuts and allow you to adjust the valves. Ajustments are done by having the cyl. on top dead and adjusting the nut until the push rod can barely be turned then 1/4-1/2 turn more. Do this for each cyl.

3) Change the rocker studs to accept adjustible rockers and adjust per #2

I have used the Comp Cams kit before and is by far the cheapest way to go