The following takes place during and after the 100 mile inspection of my valvetrain.

This is on my new 383. One of the nuts backed out completly and weakened the threads inside the nut enough to no longer be useable. It would thread onto the stud, but upon turning the engine over by hand while adjusting the valves it would back off again. We had an extra one handy.

While doing this 100 mile inspection of my new valvetrain, another had backed
off slightly, but was adjusted back into spec and it remained there.

As of now my preliminary plan if to order 16 new nuts from Comp.
Keep in mind the ones in question are used from another board member.

I understand that my valvetrain is kinda radical with the 977's, super aggressive lobes on the Joe O. cam, and Morel lifters.

Does anyone have any experience they can share with me that can help
me make my valvetrain stable?

 

your rockers didnt come with polylocks?

 

yes they were poly locks just to be clear

 

i have had 1 of mine get loose before i got it really tight this time so far so good

 

Use a socket adapter to get on them with a real wrench and crank them down better next time.

 

I set the valve lash with the engine running, then with the engine off, I go back and torque each one with an allen socket to 20 ft. lbs. Never had one loosen up yet

 

Crank the polylocks down much harder. I just pulled my valve covers last night after 600 miles of runtime and the method LR and a few others suggested worked just fine.

I set mine with the engine not running this time, using the base lobe of the cam. My particular setup I used 1/4 turn after zero lash. We got to zero lash, tightened the rocket nut 1/8 turn, then tightened the polylock down. We then took the rocker nut and the polylock TOGETHER and tightened the other 1/8 turn. Takes some cranking but it's holding solid.

 

You can crank the poo poo out of those poly-locks. If torqued right they will not back off. Use a high quality wrench with at least 4-5" of length for leverage or a allen for a wratchet. When I went to remove all mine recently I ended up with several bloody knuckles cause those things will "snap" when lossened if they were put on correctly. I have total confidence that mine wont back off after see this.

 

thanks guys for the replies!