curious about valve lash setting/check

oldmusclelover said
Rusty, I value your opinion. you first said to adjust 1/4 - 1/2, so I went 3/8 (in between), thought that was safe. I did a bunch of reading in here and (correct me if I'm wrong) too much may float a valve at high rpm's? that's why I wanted to set it low, as you suggested. I may have been alright at 3/8, but didn't run it long enough (as you said) to get the oil pumped up again. that being said, I don't want to be on the extreme side of adjustment, and I'm not second guessing you here. I'm going with what you said first 1/2 as your extreme, unless you say different, and don't you dare say 6/16's, LOL.

Thing is, we don't know what lifters are there. If they are Rhoads for example, they will make noise pretty much no matter what at low RPM. Until RPM builds up they reduce the lash back to normal. That might be one way to tell. Gently run the engine up in RPM and listen closely to the noise. If it goes away or lessens greatly at or around 3500 or so, they may be Rhoads. A lot of people think they are controlled by oil pressure. They are not. They are RPM dependent on operation. Oil pressure has nothing to do with it. Run it up in RPM and see what you get.