1989 30l Valve Adjustment

"Hi all,
I have a 1989 3.0l

"Hi all,
I have a 1989 3.0l and am trying to adjust the valves. Should the lifters be pumped up or left to bleed down when adjusting. The book says take to zero lash and then 1 more turn but nothing about collapsed or not. I took out all the lifters 3 weeks ago and cleaned them all up. I then installed them and cranked the engine over to pump them up and then adjusted the vales. I wasn't sure at the time which was intake and exhaust but looked at the manifold and figured it out. Well it's was bothering me so I took off the cover and readjusted the valves. They seemed to be off so I readjusted them. At first I really messed them up and had almost no compression in 3 cyls. So I cranked the engine over again just before putting the motor at TDC and adjusted them again thjen spining it 1 turn and adjusting the others. The real strange thing is all the cyls came back but #2. It had 0 psi. But then cranked the motor over 4 times by hand and then checked it and the cyl had compression. I checked it 3 times seperate times when it had no pcompression so I'm sure it had zero compression. Any ideas on that one. I checked all pushrods to make sure I did not bend any incase I had it too tight. It now runs rough at idle but ok at top end and has about the same low and mid rpm torque. So I am wondering what the correct procedure is to adjust the valves. I am thinking about adjusting them while it is running and put them near the point that the motor runs rough when tightening down the nut so there will be no loosness on the cam but not too tight to run rough. Thanks in advance for any info."

"It's messy, by adjusting

"It's messy, by adjusting them with the engine idling works the best. You cna buy clips (hot rod shop) that attach to the rockers and reduce the oil splatter.

Jeff

PS: I hope you didn't mix the lifters up and round over a cam lob!"

"Thanks Fastjeff, no they went

"Thanks Fastjeff, no they went back in the same spot they came out. I did 1 at a time since the garage is so close to the boat. Took a little longer 1 at a time but for sure they went back in the same hole. I will adjust while it is running maybe this afternoon. Will post back when done, thanks again."

"best to have the motor runnin

"best to have the motor running ,but i`d go 3/4 turn from "0" lash.Also i do each cyl. by itself cold.. turm motor untill both rockers are at the base ,tighten rocker untill there is no "spin" in the pushrod and go 3/4 more."

"Well tried adjusting while ru

"Well tried adjusting while running. Seems hard to adjust when anytime you tighten down a rocker that the motor runs rough. It seems like the lifter has to readjust it's self for a minute then it runs ok. I did have 1 cyl that smoothed out by adjusting but the other 3 seemed like they ran the best after turning out 1/4 turn as BT Doctur suggested, since I had them in 1 full turn from zero as the book says. It did not really make that much mess. I took a bath towel (wife wasn't looking) and put it around the motor and a couple of small towels on the other side. When reving just fold the big towel over the valves, carfully I might add as not to snag it, and no mess. Worked great, give it a try next time. Thanks for all the replys. This website is SWEET. Thanks again"