Rockering on

Today I started to pull the cylinder heads - I am interested to see if I can unstick the engine after I motivate the pistons with a 2x4. I want to turn it through its rotations and see how good or bad the cylinders are.

To get that done, I needed to pull the rocker arm assembly. Before I can do that, I had to loosen up the adjustment screws on the push rods. I think the point is to remove all tension in the rods so you don't accidentally bend one when you pull the assembly. Some of those adjustment screws hardly needed any turns to be out of the way such that the rocker was tipping back and forth. Others seemed to take forever. I would say the valve lash was not great when it was last parked.

I then pulled the bolts off the assembly and the two nuts off the posts used to hold the valve cover. On one end of each assembly there is a "rocker arm shaft drain tube" which I think is supposed to redirect excess oil back to the crank case. The picture in the manual is kind of different from real life. I am not sure how this works well - it seems like it just rests in there.


I really appreciate my custom rocker arm assembly index tool. So long as I never move it, I will always know precisely how they went on to the car in the first place.



I also crafted a similar index tool for the pushrods. I have slightly more faith that this one will keep working even if I move the tool. I was pleased at how all the rods seemed straight and I was surprised at how heavy they were when I got them all out.



I then recorded a piece of music - YouTube: Valve Spring Music
This is the second verse. The first verse had 2 or 3 flat notes, so I beat on those instruments a few more times until they came into tune.

I decided to go ahead and delete the distributor. It is just one screw (all of the wiring and the vacuum advance tube was disconnected several days ago). It looks pretty good really but I do not intend to put it back. I will replace it with an HEI system as soon as I can find one that fits this 292.



I managed to disconnect the sender wire from the sensor on the left cylinder head. Not sure what that is - temperature maybe. That just leaves me with one more connection down on the side of the crank case (which is probably oil pressure). I would have just pulled it but it is SO nasty down there I can't actually see where the wire stops and the connector begins. I will hose it with some Zep and a toothbrush before I try and disconnect it.

I loosened the head bolts too but didn't actually remove them. I reversed the directions for tightening them and I did them a little at a time. My only challenge was that I borrowed a torque wrench - but it is meant for smaller jobs. I turned it as far as it would go - and nothing. I looked at the guage and realized it won't go past 50ft-lbs. The spec in the book says 75 - that means I got to use my favorite tool instead - CHEATER BAR!! I cheat with a piece of steel clothes hanging rod that is about 1" across and 2 feet long.

The bolts still wanted me to sing to them before they started to move, so I made up lyrics to the valve spring music. I need to make a place to put the heads before I take them all the way off. Stuff is going to end up in the floor of the back seat soon enough.

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