I *think* it's out of '69. I fixed the valve stem seals were fried. Putting rocker back on and wondering about valve adjustment. does this motor have hydraulic lifters? not sure, but doesn't really matter. what matters is that i want to have the valves adjusted right. i did not tick before i pulled rocker shaft off. ran fine, just smoked when fired up. i did not change any adjustment on rockers, but feel like i shouldn't just bolt her down. any suggestions on how to adjust the threaded nuggets at top of push rods? clearance needed over closed valves? hot or cold motor? Questions: - what to torque rocker shaft down to head? - how to adjust rockers? thanks...
Did you ever figure out how to adjust them? or how much clearance they needed or if they have to be warm?
Early 170s had a solid lifter cam and require .016" clearance hot. Later 170s had hydraulic lifters and require about a half-turn of preload on the rocker nut. Adjusting the valves on a 170 is EASY. For beginners I recommend writing down the firing order, 153624, thusly: 1 5 3 6 2 4 With a breaker bar or long handled ratchet and a 15/16 socket rotate the engine damper until the timing mark comes up to top dead center. Watch #6 cyls and #1 cyls rocker arms as you do this. On one of these two cylinders the exhaust will just be closing and the intake will start to open as you approach top dead center. If that happens on #6 then adjust #1. If it happens on #1 then adjust #6, because these two pairs are matched, as in the diagram above (5 & 2 and 3 & 4 are the other two matched pairs). So lets say you just adjusted #6. The next cylinder to adjust in the firing order is #2. Rotate the crank about a third of a rev, watching #2's buddy, #5. The exhaust rocker for #5 will be closing and the intake starting to open as you get to TDC. Adjust #2 when the two #5 rockers are in alignment, one closing and one opening. Continue this process until you go through all six, then go through it again, to double check. With this method you can adjust all six cylinders with only two revolutions of the crank. To speed things up you could mark your damper in three places spaced 120 deg apart. But any more I dont even look at the damper. With practice you can run through your valves in five minutes. It will take you longer to remove the valve cover than to run the valves. Whats more you wont even have to look at the damper, just find the cylinder in the overlap cycle and start from there, adjusting the buddy cyl. Good luck. THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
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