I've been using a synthetic motor oil for a while. After I installed the supercharger, I just wanted to adjust the valves because of the high mileage and some clicking. I went a 1/2 turn past lash while the motor was hot and running. This made a small improvment. Ok great, I said to myself.

Now, with the supercharger I was blowing oil out thru my oil pan gasket because of age.

Being lazy and didn't want to change the gasket and also had alot of blow-by, I decided to switch back to regular oil and also dump in some engine Restore and some Lucas. I have 122k miles on the old girl and I wanted her to get the best performance without doing a rebuild at this time.

Anyway, I still had the oil pan leak so, I guess it was time to replace the gasket. So, I replaced it. No more leak and the car runs great.

Now back to the valves. After awhile and the use of regular oil I noticed that from 5k rpm and up, the car would hesitate and stumple. I tried to make some adjustments using LT1 Edit. No luck.

The car just didn't sound right ethier. It sounded as if the valves where to tight !!!

Alright, let's pull the valve covers off and see what's going on here. As I was loosing the rocker nut and trying to go back to lash, I ended up going at least 1 1/2 turns till I hit lash. "What the hey". 1 1/2 turns to lash? HOLY COW !!!

After adjusting all the valves the car runs stronger then it did and no more 5k and stumple.

Now I know what happened. Using synthetic oil and adjusting the valves at that time was fine but, switching to regular oil and using a can of Restore combined with the Lucas over loaded the lifters causing them to expand. That would explain why the valves would be 1 1/2 turns past lash.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that the use of synthetic or the Restore and Lucas is a bad thing. They are great products to use. It's just the timing of me adjusting the valves using synthetic and then later swithcing back to regular oil and using oil additives that had an effect on the lifters.

Also from all the reports that I've read, you can switch back and forth from synthetic and regular oil. LET'S NOT START A HUGE DEBATE OVER THIS.

I'm just passing on my experience thru trial and error.

I like to experiment with my car knowing that next year I'm going to rebuild the motor. I like to see if these after market products work as they claim. And I can you that the Restore combined with the Lucas oil made a big difference in the cars performance.

I just thought I'd pass this on to you all.

Scott

 

So, good old "Dyno" oil works better than some make it out to be, Hea?

 

I only agree with you if the car has high mileage like ours.

 

And here I thought you were gonna tell us you found a c-note under the valve cover...

Seriously though, thanks for the info! Well written too!

 

Just curious. When you adjusted the lash with the engine running, could you have tightened the lash more than 1/2 turn? I used to adjust lash with the engine running a long time ago, but since you usually just tighten until the noise goes away, how do you know the valve is completely closed then you set your lash with the engine running?

Again, just curious, since It seems odd that the oil would have anything to do with it especially if the engine was at operating temperature when you adjusted the lash.

Thanks

 

The two oils have completely different viscosities.

 

I've heard some pretty bad things about Lucas products. You might want to do a search on it, but the general consensus it that it is bad for your engine.

 

When I adjust them I listen for the loud chatter of the valve as I loosen them. Then I wait a couple of seconds and slowy thighten it down until the chatter is barely heard, wait a couple of seconds again, then I give it 1/2 a turn.

 

Sounds good to me. I can just see myself with a stethoscope in one hand, wrench in the other, hot oil everywhere, trying to dial in the optimum lash.

Maybe when my hearing was better.

 

edit.....

(my 4 yr old son was playing on the computer )

 

Wtf???