The valvegear on the 2000's always been a bit clattery but not unusally so for an OHV engine with 80k on the clock.

It seems to have been getting worse recently so I adjusted the valve clearances this morning which, if anything, made it worse.  They hadn't really closed up a great deal but I did have to loosen a few off slightly.  

I had another tinker with it this afternoon and 'found' a stripped locknut on one rocker.  It had been holding, but today's work finished it off.

One thing I did notice was that a few of the adjuster balls which locate in the top of the pushrods are worn and ridged.   Is this normal?

I guess that the combination of worn out balls, shaft and rocker arms would certainly explain the noise and means that I may as well replace the lot.  No way it's ever going to adjust properly if the balls are knackered.

Should I replace the pushrods too?  Are the adjusters supposed to wear with the pushrods?

There's plenty of oil there so I don't think that's an issue.

All those parts you mention do wear, though wouldn't really expect them to be shagged on an 80k motor.  You'll probably find that the bottom of the pushrods are worn too.

Expensive to replace all - might be worth hunting for a better SH set.

Nick

It all looks a bit rough to be honest, wear to the rocker tips (some a lot more than others), the shaft has seen better days and then there's the odd wear to the one adjuster.  Its pushrod seems fine.  Only 80k miles but I guess 40 years of driving about takes its toll.

I know of plenty of second hand parts in 'the system' which I could probably cobble together but for now, I'll probably take advantage of Rimmer's sale and order their overhaul kit which includes new rockers, shaft etc.  I know it's all probably made from cheese or something but my mate fitted one to his 2500S a while ago and it's been fine.  We'll see.........

Remember most repro stuff is rubbish, better off refacing those old rockers and using the old adjusters etc Depends they might have bore wear, I'd try a new shaft (if you can find one thats worth buying) test the rockers for play first, you can do that on the old shaft finding an area with no wear on it, check for lateral play etc.

Bruce brought me some REPRO rockers, they were made of "butteranium", better to reuse the originals, the area thats rubbing on the valve tip is shiney as its been hammered and compressed to hell, thats good, means it won't wear so fast next time? The rockers arent hardened are they?

You need to reface them just down to the polished area removing the ridges.

I am so glad to be out of the situation echo'ed in my first sentence  

You really need to harden the rimmer rocker shafts, the one i bought was like butter until plasma nitrided, can't exactly remmber the hardness but 55 ? "Sharpe" maybe ? comes to mind

Time is the issue.  I want the car back on the road asap so I'll fit the Rimmers stuff for now.  It's not as if I cover a huge annual mileage or go on race tracks or anything.  The engine isn't really subjected to much brutal treatment.

In the mean time I can get hold of some used pieces and have a proper assembly ready for when the repro stuff melts.  It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

The trouble with some of my old rocker arms is that they seem to have so much wear that some of them were virtually at the limit of their adjustment when the valve clearances were tight enough.  There wasn't really a lot of thread for the locknut to grip.

Chris Witor does Tuftrided rocker shafts.  Not too unreasonably priced. I bought one but have yet to fit it as I need to find someone to bush a set of rockers for me at a reasonable price.  Had considered buying "new" but have held off doing so due to regular quality disappointments on repro items.

Dave is right about the rocker tips.  Can be refaced pretty easily on a DIY basis rendering tappet adjustment semi-accurate again - wouldn't be surprised if this is the major part of your noise.  Something else to bear in mind is that alot of people (myself included until recently) tend to set tappets too loose anyway as they underestimate how tight a fit the feeler gauge should be when measuring.  The answer is pretty damn tight.  This matters even more if you rocker tips are a bit dished.  Credit to GT for the re-education on that one  

Cheers

Nick

Given the variable wear on my rocker arms it'd have been impossible to set them accurately with feeler gauges.  Each one was different.  I've known that the rockers have been badly worn since I bought the car but have ignored it until now.........

I always tend to set them a bit loose.  Less risk of valve damage on unleaded fuel.

The reason I had a look in the first place is that the noise level seemed to be variable.  I'm pretty certain this was due to the pushrod occasionally catching on the wear ridge on the one badly worn adjuster and temporarily varying the valve clearance on that rocker.  A sort of primitive form of variable valve timing.........

Nipping the rocker clearance up an extra couple of thou to compensate for rocker pad wear was common practice on old engines in the seventies (I'm the same age as GT !!!) not very correct but it did quieten the motor for a while, after all the cars had little value then.  

Hell yeah!  Quiet valvegear, first time ever on that car.  

I set it all up fairly loosely and gave it a quick test start, makes a nice whir now instead of a clatter and oddly enough, it runs better now that the valves are opening fully............

Impossible to judge the hardness of the components but it all looked well machined. Final check and adjust tomorrow then it's back on the road.

So easy to set the clearances when the rocker arms don't have huge indentations in them!

It'll be interesting to see how durable it all proves to be. I've got plenty of spare rocker arms now.

I always set my tappets tight as ....., ie hardly able to move the feeler gauge, I find that the final tightening of the rocker pinch nut usually just takes out a little tightness so being just pretty tight and the feeler gauge can just about be withdrawn

Agreed on unleaded the extra seat time transfers more heat fromthe valve head, but to be fair Sorbs, your's is a stock engine, so just set the tappets right Better to change to an NGK"6" heat plug. 5 will more likely detonate your pistons and valves than 0.002" too tight rockers imo.

I set them all on the cowardly side of tight this evening so will run it for a few hundred miles and check them again.

The idle is lovely and smooth again, I can sit a glass of wine on the engine while it's ticking over.

The old rocker shaft was certainly bolloxed!

Quoted from sorbs

I can sit a glass of wine on the engine while it's ticking over.

How very sophisticated!  

It's not all a bed of roses though.

The new rocker arms are of a type which allow a minute trickle of oil to run down the arm in the general direction of the rocker pads and the tops of the valves.  Seems like a good idea.

I must admit that I never paid any attention to this and didn't realise that there are varying types of rocker arm.

The extra oil in the valve area has made the car a little bit smoky.

I'm just trying to work out if it's just a case of too much oil in the wrong place or if my valve guides are in need of some attention..............There was never a hint of smoke before.

I think some suppliers still sell the original type of rocker arm without the additional oil bleed so I may do some rooting around.  Some of my old ones really are scrap.

Does the car smoke all the time or just when it's been sitting and letting the oil trickle down? Mine only smokes on start-up, so I figure it's slightly worn guides. Hasn't gotten any worse in ten years though, so that oil must be doing its job and lubricating the valves very nicely thank you.