North East Street Car Association - Setting Valve Lash
		Basics: all lash specs are with motor hot, setting it cold is only useful to warm up motor to reset when hot. Always recheck lash after tightening stud girdles and poly locks. My valve lash would loosen .002-.004 once the poly locks were tightened, so you will need to compensate. the same is true for girdles. stud girdles can change lash also, particularly with cheap girdles. A valve adjusting tool with T bar mounted allen head is well worth the $20 price, it makes the job much easier. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT TYPE OF LIFTERS ARE IN THE MOTOR! This would seem to be obvious but I have seen quite a few people using feeler gages with hydraulic lifters, or trying to set mechanical lifters with the motor running
			Setting Valve Lash on Mechanical Cams (All motor types)   All the valves must be set individually and only when the lifter is properly located on the base circle of the lobe. At this position the valve is closed and there is no lift taking place. How will you know when the valve you are adjusting is in the proper position with the lifter on the base circle of the cam? This can be accomplished by watching the movement of the valves. 1.    When the engine is hot (at operating temperature) remove the valve covers and pick the cylinder you are going to adjust. 2.    Hand turn the engine in its normal direction of rotation while watching the exhaust valve on that particular cylinder. (If you have done this before, bumping the starter motor with a remote switch is faster) When the exhaust valve begins to open, stop and adjust that cylinder’s intake valve. (Why? Because when the exhaust is just beginning to open, the intake lifter will be on the base circle of the lobe, so the intake is the one we can now adjust.) 3.    Use a feeler gauge, set to the correct valve lash, and place it between the tip of the valve stem and rocker arm. Adjust until you arrive at the proper setting and lock the adjuster in place. (most mechanical cams are set between .024" and .030" (24-30 thousandths) of valve lash 4.    After the intake valve has been adjusted, continue to rotate the engine, watching that same intake valve. The intake valve will go to full lift and then begin to close. When the intake is almost closed, stop and adjust the exhaust valve on that particular cylinder. (Again, when we see the intake valve almost closed, we are sure that the exhaust lifter is on the base circle of the lobe.) Use the feeler gauge and follow the procedure described before in step 3. 5.    Both valves on this cylinder are now adjusted, so move to your next cylinder and follow the same procedure again. In the future you may find shortcuts to this method, but it still remains the best way to do the job correctly.
				Alternative method for big and small block chevy motors with mechanical cams: Warm motor Set #1 cylinder to TDC on compression stroke (use balancer as reference) a breaker bar on the crank bolt is the easiest way, just be careful in turning the motor Cylinder TDC                        Intake                   Exhaust 1                                             7                           4 8                                             2                           3 4                                             1                           6 3                                             8                           5 6                                             4                           7 5                                             3                           2 7                                             6                           1 2                                             5                           8 With #1 @ TDC compression, #7 intake and #4 exhaust will be on their cam base circles and can be lashed. If those valves look like they are open you are 180* away from compression. You can either turn the motor over or start with #6. Once you have set the first set of valves, turn the motor CLOCKWISE 90* (a degreed balancer really helps here), and you can now set the next set of valves. In total you will turn the balancer two full rotations in 90* increments (quarter turn each) to set all the valves. I have used this method in the past with excellent results. My new motor has a mandrel drive so it will not work on that application.