Lifter adjustment

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User]
edited November -1 in HUDSON
Getting ready to install a 212 into my 41 hudson. Have easy access to lifters since I pulled off exhaust/intake to fix broken stud. Was thinking of adjusting lifters to a cold setting +.002 over recommended setting, allowing for expansion when hot. Anybody ever do this with success, or just wait untill its in and adjust when hot for more accurate adj? Jim

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    You are going to get all kind of answers, just adjust them cold, adding the 2 thousands extra. Just make sure you do not turn the piece that the lifters set in. If you have my tech tip books, go to Volume one, page 32 and read the story. Walt.
  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    I haven't adjusted mine in quite a while, but I always did it hot, with the engine running. Wasn't that hard as long as you had the inner fender out and didn't mind getting your face splattered with a little hot oil! But I don't think doing it cold, is that bad. I believe the recommendation is .010 and .012 cold (though for some reason I always adjusted it to that when HOT. No wonder my engine was noisy!).
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I used Walt's cold method on my 48 commodore 8 with fine results. Drove 15,000 mile after that and no valve issues.
    Roger
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    Only the 175 CID engine is set 10 and 12, marked on the valve covers. The 212 engines call for 6 and 8 hot, so add 2 thousand cold when you set them and you will have no problems. Those valves jumping up and down, using 3 wrenches, and burnt knuckles, will not set correctly. Walt.
  • J Spencer
    J Spencer Expert Adviser
    I did my Pacemaker cold and I have 25k and 20 years on it since with no problem. I probably should do it just to be sure, but I guess that as long as it was running fine I just didn't give it much thought over the years. Time does get by quickly you know. Of course I have to take the headers off mine to acces them.

    Jim Spencer
  • terraplane8
    terraplane8 Senior Contributor
    Walt must be right....of course it's easy enough to prove: measure the clearance cold, then measure the same when hot and see what the difference is. Naturally enough it should be 2 thou. That's what I do although I have never proven it as such, makes sense and a lot more pleasant to do if you're a hobby mechanic rather than a professional mechanic who would be correspondingly adept at multi-spanner gymnastics in a tight space whilst contorted under a mudguard and a hot manifold.

    Adjusting the valves hot on a Hudson must be one of the most horrible jobs I've ever done on a car; the access is dreadful and getting burnt is no fun either. It's almost enough to make one go to overhead valves LOL. The last one I did I broke the side off a lifter body as I must have put too much pressure on the locknut and failed to prevent the lifter body turning sufficiently.

    Having said that the clearances never seem to change much with the small mileage I do.
  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    It is absolutely essential on all splasher motors, that you use a spanner on the flats of the lifter body as you undo the locknut, tensioning the two spanners against each other rather than just try and undo the locknut on it's own. You will either mis-align the lifter on the cam, or break the sides off, as mentioned above. I have the greatest respect for Walt, and acknowledge that his method works on Step-down motors, but I prefer to get absolute accuracy by setting the tappets hot, in spite of the discomfort. If you have stainless valves they will expand more than the original silicon steel valves, so by setting them hot you know where you are. Probably the only exception is with the '55 models, where it is a physical impossibility anyway, so you have to do them cold.
    Geoff
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