Hi all I am doing a basic head gasket and I have a question about the instaltion.. Chiltons says suppost to adjuts the valves with the crank #1, but since I have a pushrod set up and since I have just removed the one side (didn't move the crankchaft at all) do I need to go though all of the adjusting of the valves or can I simpliy put it back right as is and when I torqe the rockers arms won't the push rods be in the exact same place where they were when I removed them and in turn put the valves back exactly where they should be?

 

yea you've gotta reset the lash on the side you pulled, different dead gasket sizes and whatnot will affect it. and besides it's just smart to do it right and not be lazy, it's really simple to do.

 

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#adjust_valves

That will show you how to do it.

 

Rockers aren't torqued down; they need to have their lash set. The above post points to lashing techniques.

 

Ok, I did it by the spin the push rod method ( in two stages following the instructions + Chiltons about adjusting certain valves with the crank in #1 TDC then others with crank in other position) and looks like it is working...
but when I crank the engine after putting all back together no luck I could hear the engine turning but no spark; cranked it about 3 times and before battery died ( am charging over night )

Now, when I did the work I had the fuel wires tied up out of the way to prevent any spillage so I am thinking my lines are dry and that is my problem.

or could I have screwed the timing as when I adjusted the valves I had to move the crank manually to get to #1 TDC ( manually with the battery disconnected)... or with the PCM detect this through some sensor which tells the ICM which position the crank is in ???

Thanks for your time

 

You didn't screw up the timing because you rotated the engine manually with the key off.

What kind of engine is it? LT1? If so, the PCM gets the cam position from the low res pulse in the Opti, and as long as you have the Opti indexed correctly to the cam, the PCM knows exactly where the cam and crank are at all times, assuming that you also indexed the timing sprockets correctly.

 

Its a 3.8 1997 firebird.. does the PCM get the info about where the cam & crank are simmilarily to the V8 motors?

 

you need to ad 3.8L to your sig I think everyone assumed you had an LT1
if you did a head gasket and only did one side......your fine tq em down you don't need to do the other side.....the ignition on the 3.8 is totally different

 

I think I am misunderstanding something....The car will not start now?

 

Since it s V6, the whole thread should have been posted in the V6 Engine Tech forum in the first place



Moving........

 

yeah the enginge turns but does not get combustion... could this be caused by the valves being out of adjustment?? I hear of people saying valves out of adjustment makes the car run rough or whatever but could it totally stop the enginge from getting combustion

p.s. before I did the work the enginge did run fine and the only problme was the head gasket went... but even after that happened the enginge did run (codes said running on 5 cylinders only with a constant misfire of 6th - turned out the leake on the head gasket was by that cylinder)

 

On the 3.4 v6 you have to worry about setting valve lash. On the 3.8 there is no adjustment, you simply torque the bolts to spec. According to Haynes this is 11 foot pound + 90°

 

You did put all the pushrods in the same spot right....I know some of the gen 2 60* v-6 had 2 diff length PR.
I will read on it today and see.....you check compression on those 3 cyl.?

 

yeah I kept track on where the pushrods went by labeling each one.. I will try to run a compression test afterwork today.

thanks for your help

 

ran the compression test.. 150 on the rear cylinder but 30 on the front cylinder ( din't get time to do the middle one as the wife wanted dinner)... anyways I want to belvie that somehow one of my vlaves are stuck open due to the rocker nuts beign to tight.. but then in all reality I think that most likely there is some lower end damage there, perhaps slipped piston ring from when the head gasket blew... what do you guys think??

thanks for all of your time looking at this + helping me out it is apprachiated