Date:         Tue, 22 May 2012 13:15:11 -0400
Reply-To:     pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      hydraulic lifter adjustment questions (sorry)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Okay, I know this has been discussed extensively.  I understand the
adjustment procedure (I did it a few years ago, after a head job) and know
that
1) you should set the lifters at 1-2 turns past 0, otherwise you are
defeating the purpose of hydraulic lifters
2) you should not do this because the hydraulic lifters do not work as well
as they are supposed to and so should be set at .006" cold, 0 turns hot,
1/2 turns in hot, etc.,
3) you should never have to adjust them anyways (because if you follow line
1 that is the whole point of them.)

We have a fresh rebuilt 2.1 done by Gary Leblanc.  The Boston (Bob) school
of thought was some compromise between 1) and 2), that is, you adjust in a
little bit (1/2 turn, maybe) but only after running the rebuilt engine for
a while with the lifters set at .006, to ensure that all air is gone.

Our engine has had no lifter noise.  I don't even remember lifter noise on
first startup but obviously I had my hands full then so I might have missed
some.  (Also, I cranked a good bit without wires hooked up to ensure oil
pressure was made so maybe they could have already pumped up just from
that?)

The only time I've heard it make lifter noise is once after running then
engine cold for 1 minute and then letting it sit for an hour.  In my
experience this often/always causes lifter noise in vanagons for some
reason.  (The noise went away after a minute or two of running.)

So I'm wondering:
if I have no lifter noise does that mean I don't need to adjust the valves
in yet?  That is, are there any symptoms of lifter adjustment too far out
which would could occur in the absence of lifter noise?
and second,
assuming I do need to go ahead and adjust the valves in:
Is there any reason I can't do this after the van has been sitting for a
while?  Do I need to check that there is no lifter noise immediately before
the adjustment, for example?  Or is it important that the lifters are all
the way pumped up before doing the adjustment?

Something I've remained confused about despite years of seeing threads on
this adjustment issue is this:
When you adjust the lifters to some number of turns in, how do you know the
lifters were already pumped to their full length before you did the
adjustment?  Isn't the whole point of the lifters (assuming they work as
they were intended) that they can pump up to a partial length?  It almost
seems to me that you would have to adjust them way out, run the engine to
pump them up, and then adjust them in.   Why isn't that necessary?


Thanks for any insights!!
Wes