Thread: valve adjustment 302

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Hi a had a question for anybody that can help me.I have a 1967 mustang that my brother inlaw gave to me he had a 289 and then he had a 302 put in. Theres a problem with the valves my car sounds like a semi truck (loud tappings).could any body give me a tip on how to adjust them.

the best way that i have found to do it is to take a set of old steel valve covers, cut the top out, bolt them on and then start the car. once it warms up and the ticking begins, just start adjusting. It's not an exact science, I've never read it in a book, but an old timer showed me once and its never failed me. The way he put it was, " a rebuilt engine is only as good as the guy who built it, and no two guys build the same. So once in a while you need to tune an engine to its spec's, not the spec's in the book. "

ticking you say... what rockers you got? stud mount or pedestal mount... if they're stud mount, and its ticking and rockers are coming off... its cause you have an aftermarket cam... a problem many people run into with stud mount 302s is that when an even mild cam is put in, the rockers aren't slotted far enough and start pulling your studs out of the heads... only way to solve this properly is to change to roller rockers, a cheaper way to fix would be to have the rockers machined so the slots are larger, but most likely if this has been going on long enough, your rockers will be bent... plus also your studs may already have been pulled too much... if thats the case you'll have to have the heads drilled and have new threaded in studs put in... if you're lucky enough, you've already got thread in studs... either way you should goto roller rockers if you've got a non-stock cam... hopefully this isn't your problem, but i've had it happen and seen it happen to quite a few 302s

Thestang; If you know what the rockers are, under the valve
covers. Now I'm not trying to be funny Ok. Tighten the big nut
or snugit down lightly. As your tightening it listen for the ticking
to stop also spin the push rod with your finger tips as you tighten it. Go to each one doing this. The push rod should be able to spin
as you tighten each rocker, do this till the ticking go's away or you can't spin the push rod freely, If the engine slows down or starts to drag back that rocker back off or losen it, right away
or you could flatten a lobe on the cam.
This is while the engine is running, Ok
Hope this helps some
~ Vegas ~
P.S. This is for the old style 302.

Side Note: engine running method is VERY messy.... so have fun