Solid Lifters With Non-Adjustable Rocker Assembly??

[Anonymous]

OK I am newly registered but have been reading the forum for about a month. Great job to you all :!: Saved a '63 Ranchero from growing trees in someones back yard. Been sitting for 5 years. After a half days work, engine fired right up, ran perfect, quiet, no smoke, no obvious problems. Put a couple quarts of tran fluid in and it even drove quite nicely. Now the tear down, pulled the head to evaluate how far down to build up from. One piston has a broken top ring and slight ridge forming, will have to rework the block. Engine turns out to be a '68 200, head is a C7DE, and trans is a '70 3 spd atuo. Now the kicker. The head does have the non-adjustabale rocker arm assembly and the previous individual installed some kind of cam with solid lifters. The block was decked but the heads were not milled down. There are no shims under the rocker assembly, no wear on the push rods and the engine ran so quiet, I didn't have a clue until I pulled a lifter out. Finally, my question, "Is this guy good or just plain lucky?" :

 

[Rustang Racer]

He probably used different length pushrods to adjust the valvetrain. I think that is what the shop manual suggests.

 

[MLINE]

Hey 63 chero. Good to see another person from around here.

That sounds lucky to me. Don't you need adjustable rockers to set the lash? Seems if you buy pushrods to length you couldn't ever tighten things up.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Mike,
You can come over and spend a few thousand hours working on this project, if you like.
That is exactly the point. I would bet either they would be extremely noisy or bind up, not quiet, as they sound. I call it luck as well.
Gary

 

[MLINE]

lol... Thanks for the offer Gary, but if I was to "help" you'd have to at least double that few thousand hours.

catch ya later.