rocker tightening questions

[buffblazer]

ok got my new heads on and i was reading up in my hayns book on how to properly tightn my rockers. now it says basically take the engine to top dead center on the number 1 cylinder and tighten till slight drag is felt on the rod when you try to spin it and then just rotate 90 degrees to get each cylinder. my question is with the balancer on, and the timing mark straight up thats top dead center for cylinder 1 right? and is there any tips on tighting it so i get it right the first time and dont have to pull my valve covers off after i get the engine installed to loosen or tighten the rockers?

 

[POWERMAD]

And here we go..
Rotate the engine so the timing mark is approaching TDC. Watch the valves on cylinders 1 and 6.
If you are getting to TDC and the exhaust valve is closing and the intake starting to open on say 6 then #1 is ready to be adjusted.
Rotate engine. Since we know that the firing order is 18436572 we can now proceed with the rest. When #5 is on the rock ( exhaust closing, intake opening) #8 is next. so on and so forth.
On the rock... adjust
1 --------------6
8 --------------5
4 --------------7
3 --------------2
6 --------------1
5 --------------8
7 --------------4
2 --------------3

Tighten the rocker so that there is zero lash. Turn 90*
It takes a few to get the feel for zero lash.
You can adjust them with the engine running and the covers off but that makes a friggin mess even with the lil deflector clips.

 

[dyeager535]

Yep. I don't trust myself with keeping tabs on other cylinders though, so I just rotate the engine watching the rockers for said cylinders. It's obvious when they are both closed.

As said, it takes some feel. Zero lash means zero gap between the rocker pushrod seat and pushrod, it doesn't mean zero movement, which seems to be the major misinterpretation people have when adjusting rockers.