VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Valve adjustment

I have a 1951 chevrolet 235 in my Fleetline and I wanted to adjust the valves and make sure they were set correctly. So this is what I did , I marked all the exhaust and intake rockers. once I did that I turned the motor until I have the first set of rockers in the closed position then set the intake to .006 and exhaust to .013 . and I just kept working my way back as I turned the motor by hand. Is this how it should be done? Dose anyone have any experience doing this? let me know thanks.

Yes, you are doing it correctly, assuming you have the cylinder in TDC firing position.

Melissa
www.earlsmachine.com
Burien, WA.

Great to have you with us Melissa...! We need all the "Tech" help we can get...!

Seems that you would want to follow the firing order: 1-5-3-6-2-4. Let's see, that would mean, for static adjustments, that the next in rotation would be #5 after 60 degree turn of the crank, and so on.
Charlie

BTW: Something keeps gnawing me in that it seems that you can do two cylinders at a time. Somebody straignten me out. If one is at TDC then another must be there also. Right?

If you have a 1951 235 engine in your car it should also have a powerglide transmission ..AND the valves should have hydraulic lifters! The valve lash adjustments are different than for the 216 engines.

Now if you do have mechanical lifters, do it the easy, pull the sparkplugs so the compression is released, also pull the distributor cap,remembr
ering where each sparkplug is being pointed to by the rotor and the valves on that cylinder are both closed, turn the engine over by hand (on the fan belt) and set the valves with the engine cold at 2 thousandths wider than the book shows, this will get the engine running. button the engine up, cap back on and sparkplugs installed. Start the engine, warm it up to operating temperature, oil is hot enough to feel HOT when it get's on you, set the idle really slow and adjust the valve lash while the engine is idleing to the shop manual specs, like the book says, If you can't do a valve adjustment with the old six idleing, then learn how! that is part of being a Chevrolet mechanic.
By the way if the valve rockers dimple up abd ruin your feeler gage, you need to dress the rocker arms or replace them with NOS ones....

The motor I have is a 51 235 out of a truck. If that makes any difference?

Mr. Mack...Thanks for that dimpled feeler gauge advise...I've seen that happen...I thought perhaps the "mechanic" didn't know what he was doing...!

I didn't think hydro-lifters was happening 'till '54...?

And I would assume a '51 235 Truck motor is definetly solid lifters...I thunk...

yep a 51 truck engine was solid lifters as were all the truck 235 engines up thru 55, maybe thru 62. The 51, 52, 235 powerglide engines were hydraulic lifters and only came in the powerglide equipped cars. That 235 was babbit rod, splish splash oiling.

Well I have the valves adjusted and silent. Fires right up. I let it run to check oil flow and all the rockers are getting oil now. My next question is I wanted to know about the firing order on the distributor cap? Where should the number one wire be on cap? And when the number one cylinder is at TDC dose that mean that the number one intake valve is wide open?
I know the firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4

NO! Both valves must be closed.

I suggest you consult your Owners Manual and Service manual. Those questions will be answered in either one.

PS: I also suggest you obtain the entire year of the Chevrolet Service News. You will be amazed at the information you will find in those publications. And all are in reprint.

Good for you on the valve adjustment...! At TDC your rotor will be pointing at 6 O'clock on the distributor cap...

I believe Ray has a point here...There is lots you can learn easily and quickly by consulting your manual...If you don't have one go to oldonlinechevymanuals.com , it's a great site...!

This reminds me of an old "adage" I once heard..."You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day..."
"Or you can give a young woman breast implants...And someone will feed her 'till she's 50..."

Kevin....Shame on you ..This is a family site....ED

That is cool yeah I have been elbow deep in Manuals and reading. But I decided to just figure it out I am more of a hands on type of person. If I study it long enough I will get it.

Those old manuals only hold the basic's...You have any questions at all...Or thoughts...Run it past us...That's what this Club/Chat/Forum thing is all about...

If your gonna look for the real meaning in life, you might as well start here...We're working on it, too...lol

Will do...

Melissa,how long have you been at Earl's?I had my 48 done there 20 years ago