1993 Yukon crate motor hydraulic roller lifter cleaning and adjustment journey - (Solved)

[Road Trip]

Re: Positive stop timing mark check.

Just had an idea. Is it possible to sight your borescope into the #1 spark plug hole
so that you can see a unique spot (scratch, imperfection) on the far side of the cylinder
wall, and when the piston just obscures that, use that as a visual stop and make
the aforementioned before/after marks, split the difference in order to get the
proven-accurate mark?

Just a thought. My plan is to brew up my own stop based on a YouTube video I just
saw, but I'll wait until I actually brew one up later this spring to go into detail. Definitely
one of those tools that you would use infrequently, but when you need it, it's a real
timesaver to have it already brewed up and verified good.

 

[scott2093]

I'm sorry but,the lack of sleep must have brought out my inner chimp. I used to work with my buddy, actually the guy I bought the truck from, and he used to make little monkey coo sounds when I would struggle to get something right...lol
2001 A Space Odyssey beginning scene music playing through my mind.... Yes I had to spell check Odyssey...

Got the distributor right where I wanted... Good idea on the scope.. I was actually trying to use it to turn the oil pump drive..lol I gave up on that once I realized how things worked....

My balancer is right. Kinda thought it may be since I was using the opening and closing of number 1 to get it when I started this journey and it worked then ...
Also learned that number 5 exhaust rocker should be right at it's top when at #1 tdc, on the balancer no less...very cool...

sounding pretty good..... camera isn't flattering..... I'm done obsessing for now...


I'll get a test drive in a bit and come back for hopefully a good report...so beat...

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[rebelyell]

RE: pushrod inspection:
So far, all Good inspection suggestions; but here's another ... OE or aftermarket, old or slightly used, flat tappet or roller, especially so if one-piece PRs (which I do like):

W/ all PRs very clean, and under a strong light, perhaps with magnification aide, look closely at ALL ends (particularly radiating around oil hole) ... look for any sign of a fracture or scarring, or precursor thereof, no matter how slight. Those Will become a problem. The next "problem" phase are tiny-small chips broken out from ends' spherical surface.

 

[Road Trip]

Sewing machine sound = Good!

Re: quantity of sound vs quality of sound

If you want to see where Chevrolet took things on the SBC to the 'next level',
then you check out what they did on the Corvettes powered by the 1st-gen SBC.
First, the customers tend to be more powerplant focused than average, and second,
the number of Corvettes made each year was a small fraction of the total number
of SBC-powered GMT400s of that same timeframe.

For example, where the trucks got tin valve covers, which mask the sound
a little bit, the Corvette engines would get thicker aluminum valve covers,
which did a better job of turning the working valvetrain sounds into that
nice Singer song. More accurately, the tin valve covers would re-radiate
the sound with their overtone/harmonics, whereas the aluminum valve
covers may be only a little quieter (in terms of sheer decibel levels) but at
the same time a much nicer overall muted, lower frequency tonal quality.

Like the difference in a very live reflective room vs the same size recording
studio -- even at the same decibel level, there is a difference.

The point I'm trying to make is that if your valves are that quiet with no
covers, they will be just that much better with the covers back on.
Good job -- I had to listen carefully over the fan/wind noise & the
alternator to hear anything.

NOTE: If I had a choice between aftermarket aluminum valve covers
vs stock tin, I'll take the tin. GM put a lot of engineering into
oil/air separation where the PCV valve plugs in, and a lot of the aftermarket
stuff just doesn't put any effort into this, leading to mystery oil consumption
issues. (ie: excess engine oil fed into the intake manifold.)

I'm not up on my SBC factory aluminum valve covers anymore, but I wouldn't
be surprised that a set from a '92 Corvette that would fit your truck are out
there somewhere. (Just from the perspective of an slight audible difference
in sonic signature...but unless you found a pair in the Treasure Yard or a yard
sale for a song, I absolutely wouldn't go there.)

Or, you could just use the tin you already have and be 110% happy with the
results of your hydraulic lifter de-varnishing Odyssey. :0)

And don't forget that the upmarket trucks would have sound insulation
installed on the underside of the hood for an even quieter engine bay.
(EDIT: Just like in your video. D'oh! :0)

The zen of this hobby is to know when enough is enough, and to just
relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Sounds good. Don't snatch Defeat from the jaws of Victory and stay up
too long. Once the tension passes and all this works per the project plan
the built up fatigue will hit you like a ton of bricks. Trust me on this.

Time to take a hot Tide shower and Sleep the Sleep of the Just.

Safe travels --

 

[scott2093]

I feel like I've crammed so much information in such a short period of time. What a treasure of information to refer to and to help others. Just got back from a good 40 minute drive.
Even on a 70mph hwy and around town.
Truck makes no noise at startup and no ticking that is like what prompted this journey.

I felt like the karate kid at times all aggravated with doing some tasks but when it all came together and clicked at once, it was one of the best feelings anyone could ask for. It's like I was just making sure things were going to turn out the way I knew they should in regards to the preload and adjusting. It's crazy to go from understanding to actually knowing what the instructions and techniques are saying.

Pretty tough in words which is interesting to think about. Really made a cool puzzle come together in the end and everyone is lucky to have this place. One member on an electronics forum I'm a member of said it great and it applies here for sure.

This place is an embarrassment of riches

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm so grateful for everything. The truck feels closer to when my buddy had it than it ever has.


I'll be putting together my notes on the cold adjustment and the hot running adjustment.
The cold method Schurkey describes is sooooo much easier with clean lifters......but it's pretty awesome regardless....

Knowing what it means really helps understand what a jewel of a method it is.....
I was surprised there were a couple of small deviations when doing the hot running...but nothing major at all....

Hey and no smoke out the tail pipe....

Sorry for the jumping out of an airplane noise pollution... But it's sounding great....lol
And no leaks
I'm cautiously optimistic....but in the best way....
See....blocked the tire...lol

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[Road Trip]

I feel like I've crammed so much information in such a short period of time. What a treasure of information to refer to and to help others.

That's the truth. And from my perspective, experienced folks can type in all kinds of
explanation/guidance, and it can be helpful -- but when someone like yourself takes that
info and turns it into a real-world proof of concept? This total package makes the data
much more helpful/persuasive. No doubt others will take advantage of this information.

scott2093:

This place is an embarrassment of riches

One thing that is a particular strength of this forum (and what attracted me to it) was
the genuine collaborative problem solving approach to helping others who are trying to
keep their GMT400s on the road. And the signal/noise ratio is way better here than
elsewhere. (!)

****

NOTE: You should consider adding (SOLVED) to the title of this thread. I know when I'm
doing some research and I see this in the title I know that the thread won't be yet
another dead end where the OP never comes back and shares what fixed their problem?

I felt like the karate kid at times all aggravated with doing some tasks but when it all came together and clicked at once, it was one of the best feelings anyone could ask for.

Isn't that a great feeling? That specfic response must be in all of our DNA, probably
inherited from the first caveman who figured out how to start a fire anytime he wanted? :0)

As a matter of fact, there's a gentleman on YouTube who for me just nails how it feels
when something you've worked so hard on fires up for the first time: *That's right*

Anyway, glad to hear that you got this over the finish line. Congrats!

 

[Road Trip]

Yeah it was number 1 intake that's the rainbird..

One last question. After your cleaning, did the #1 Intake remain a rainbird,
or did it start acting like it's brothers & sisters?

Inquiring minds wanna know. :0)

 

[scott2093]

One last question. After your cleaning, did the #1 Intake remain a rainbird,
or did it start acting like it's brothers & sisters?

Good question. Every one acted normal but the second time I started after finding zero lash and shutting down to adjust 1/2 turn, number 3 intake got a little exciting... But not near the level 1 was before. I would have stopped the presses and grabbed the valve cover top piece if it got anywhere close to the level things were shooting before. You can kind of see it in the one video of my final start where I shoot video of the underside of my hood.

Tbh, I couldn't tell you how the passenger bank acted because I had the cut up valve cover and it's top piece with holes on but, to give you an idea of how much different it was, I didn't have any oil smoke burning off on my test drive and I had not even put a cut up valve cover top on the driver's side when adjusting...Just added some cardboard when #3 started shooting over the cover's edge....before, I even had to slide cardboard in the valve cover cutout while it had it's top on.

And there was nothing to note on any lifters that was any different than any of the others that would explain any noises or spraying.... I do suspect I could have flipped a metering disc or 2 along the way. The lion's share of them were facing with the side that had the inner circle raised towards the top of the lifter. But 2 or three were facing the other way from the factory. Would be nice to know the reason for the discrepancy. If it's that particular during manufacturing, that's pretty unbelievable..

Interesting note that the driver's side bank of lifters were noticeably cleaner inside than the passenger side? It definitely stood out to me.

Tax day tomorrow but I promise to get those adjustment pics of rocker nuts and numbers up. Anxious to see them.....

How do I edit thread title?

 

[Road Trip]

How do I edit thread title?

Looks like this can only be done by a moderator. They are friendly and on here
fairly often. If it was me I would PM one of them and I'm sure that they will take
care of this for you.

****

And it sounds like that rainbird behaving hydraulic lifter was cured by your cleanup effort.
Good stuff.

 

[df2x4]

Looks like this can only be done by a moderator.

I can do that for you if you'd like, just let me know what you'd like the title changed to.