[mdw95TA]

trying to figure out why after i set my valves, my fresh rebuilt 355 is hard to crank over, no spark plugs, throttle blades open, new charged battery, booster cables straight to starter, slow cranking, before i set my valves the engine was easy to crank by hand, but now its really hard to crank, with spark plugs in cant hardly crank it over by hand, tried to use the starter and melted booster cables, after i crank it with no plugs i can hear something under valve covers creaking, took valve covers off and everything looks normal, had some oil flowing out of a couple pushrods, the reason i was cranking it was to prime the engine with oil, just wondering if the Pac 1212x springs, or ls7 lifter, 1.6rr and hotcam would be causing this, kinda seems like its something to do with valve train, i only put 1/4 turn preload on lifters. Seems like without spark plugs when i rotate it by hand to goes good for a bit then brings up in something. springs binding up maybe? anybody have any thoughts on this? starting to think bad valve adjustment? bad lifter?

 

[mdw95TA]

it was really easy until i set the valves, used your adjustment instruction on your page Steveo, took me no time at all, think i will start over, back off all the rockers, and try cranking the engine by hand again. i will report back. wonder if i might have done it backwards, second guessing myself now.

 

[mdw95TA]

with the engine running method i guess there's no order? go down 1 side then the other?

 

[mdw95TA]

thanks for the info, if i can get it running, i will try that method, i will report back.

 

[mdw95TA]

update: backed off all the lock nuts on rockers, and engine cranks easily, going to try readjusting rockers again.

 

[mdw95TA]

noticed that after i backed off all the lock nuts, at max lift, i cant even get a turn on the lock nut on a couple rockers, like the stud is too short, or pushrod too long maybe? still stock length pushrods. is that normal? but when the valves are closed i can put the nuts on no problem, also noticed when adjusting preload 2 rockers were hard to turn the nuts, like lifters would not compress, any thoughts anyone.

 

[mdw95TA]

the heads were decked, i did check the pushrod length, new they were a little long, the pattern was a bit towards the exhaust, did not think that the piston and valve would connect tho. i used a weak spring to measure pushrod length. so i guess what your saying is, at max lift with a long pushrod there's a chance that my valve and piston would connect? that would suck. but seems like to me couple lifter are not compressing, when i set preload the spring compresses, not lifter, is that normal?

 

[mdw95TA]

I think there might be a little misunderstanding here, just to clear it up, I did set my valves when they were closed, not at max lift. I just noticed that when I was setting preload 2 rockers nuts where hard to turn a 1/4, I should be able to turn up to 3/4 I believe, not sure why the 2 were like that. I thought I would be able to start all the nuts on the rocker studs but I can't, there's always 2 that won't thread on until I crank engine over. With stock stamped rocker's I can put the nuts on all 16. Going to try again. I would hate to have to take the intake and heads off. If I did, do you guys think I could reuse the gaskets? I don't mind buying new ones but, it took a month to get these ones shipped here. Thanks for all input.

 

[mdw95TA]

I can get 14 rocker nuts on, in order to get the other 2 on i gotta turn over the engine. I installed the cam, timing set, and hub myself. I used pic's I saw on here to do it all, the cam dowel was at 3 o'clock, crank key at about 2 o'clock, crank gear dot at 12 o'clock, cam gear dot at 6 o'clock, cylinder 6 TDC, think i done it right? this is the third LT1 I put together, didn't have any off these problems before with stock stuff. going to try it again tomorrow, if the engine is still hard to crank its all coming apart again, I will report back on my progress.

 

[mdw95TA]

I don't think so, cam dowel is at 3 o'clock, crank key at 2 o'clock, crank gear dot at 12 o'clock and cam gear at 6 o'clock, cylinder 6 TDC .

 

[mdw95TA]

What I had going on was, cylinder 1 TDC I could only start 14 poly nuts, seems like the other 2 pushrods were at max lift, not leaving me enough thread on the stud to start poly nuts, at that point I was not trying to find zero lash, just putting rockers and nuts in place. Not sure what I had done, I just started over tonight, done what Steveo said, the engine cranks fine now, noticed tho i messed up the threads on a couple poly locks, think that's why it was hard to do the 1/4 turn preload, still don't explain slow and hard cranking. I was thinking it might have been the new springs, there still ticking, might have taken a bit to get them broken in? don't no. Compression test tomorrow.