setting valve lash and timing

[eadsauto1]

alright i have a lot of questions and all help and opinions are appriciated! it is a solid lift roller motor and i need to know what to set the valve for the initial start up and what , if it needs to be adjusted to from there! next is what i should set the timing at for the start up its a 12:1 compression and i dont want to be to far off for the start up this is the first time for me with a solid lift motor and also this much compression.

[Mailman]

check your cam card. It should tell you the lash hot and cold. If it doesn't i would say from 18 to 22. somewhere in there.

[406shark]

Expanding on what James said...

Do you have aluminum heads or cast iron heads?

If you have aluminum heads, the cold lash setting should be tightened more than the cam card shows. The cam card will show you a hot setting. I've always had great results setting mine .006" tighter than the cam card when the engine is dead cold.

My cam calls for .014" hot on both intake and exhaust. I set mine at .008" cold... when engine is fully hot... recheck of the lash showed a perfect .014".

If you don't have the cam card, you should contact the cam manufacturer and find out what the lash setting is. Typical old school cam specs called for .018"-.024" as normal lash settings... some companies grind them with a "tight" valve lash.


Jeff