how do you adjust valves on a 71 buick skylark 350?

dick car guy

New member
the car has hydraulic lifters, there is no valve adjustment, this can be from many different factors, but the Chief foremost problem is likely to be from dirty oil and time, so if you pull the dipstick, and the oil is so dark you cannot see the marks on the stick, change the oil. if this car is new to you, drive the car one hundred miles, check the oil, if you cannot see the marks on the stick, change the oil again. Oil is clear when new and light colored, it gets darker with heat, and contaminants, you can minimize the contaminants by a clean air filter, and good quality fuel and keeping the oil clean. Modern oil has detergent in it, there is no need for the aftermarket cleaners and all the other money wasting products available. after you change the oil a couple of times it will stay cleaner longer, once you can no longer see the marks on the dipstick, the oil is dirty, On used cars I have bought, I changed the oil once or twice in the first 500 miles, then after that monitored how clean the oil stayed, but after a while the intervals get longer and longer, until you get between 2,500 to 3 thousand miles.
If you open the oil fill cap and look in the top of the valve cover and it is dark and dirty, so is the rest of the engine, but since it is used to running that way, the best thing you can do is keep the oil clean, and drive the car on the freeway, v8 love super unleaded chevron with techron, and a nice long freeway drive. Chevron uses a good quality gas, not the contaminated gas and water the el cheapo gas stations sell, techron is a fuel system cleaner that over time will help keep your fuel system clean, change the oil, and run a tank full of super unleaded and take a nice long drive, getting up to freeway speeds will help clean out all the deposits left from el cheapo gas, and puttering around town, two things v8 do not do well.
do this and you will notice a difference the next time you drive it, you could probably benefit more from a good tune up, using brass contacts and a good quality cap and rotor, not that cheap chinese crap.
age can also play a part in hearing lifter noise, I didn't notice the mileage on the engine, this information too can help give us an idea if there is a ton of miles on the engine,there is no adjustment you can do, the noise should actually only be noticeable when it is in neutral at idle, once you drop it in gear and accelerate the oil pressure increases as the engine rpm goes up.
 
If you need to set valve lash, then you put the cylinder at top dead center and then loosen up the rockers, and use a feeler gauge to set the correct distance, then you tighten them back up. Repeat for each cylinder.
 
you have hydraulic valve lifters. so dont need to adjust them unless they are stuck.

here are some links for you to read.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=stuck%20valve%20lifter
 
Back
Top