Have not heard back from yhalkeeiron so I'm going to continue his thread still hoping for his results...
I received my Head back from the machine shop and he replaced all the valves and 4 exhaust guides. He still could not guarantee that we don't have an issue and I completely understood. He left the valves for me to adjust and I like that so I can know they are right before I put it back in the car. Was working with the head on the bench today and was really taking my time asking myself all kinds of questions/ double double checking this go around and found something interesting, or so I think.
With the lobe straight up I adjust the valve to spec and started rotating the cam around and found that with the cam lob to one side (not straight up) the gap was greater. Hmmm... This is a new cam from Burton with ~4Kmiles on it already (Detroit Stampede Trip) and the wear looks very normal and passed the machine shop inspection. FYI, all the rockers were kept with the correct lobes on rework. So I'm thinking that the adjustment needs to be correct at 'Base Circle' which would be the lowest point on the cam lob in reference to the center of the cam rod... correct? OK, so that stopped me from adjusting any further and I started worshipping at the Google God extensively and found this on a Crane cams reference site...
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Setting Valve Lash on Mechanical Cams
All the valves must be set individually and only when the lifter is properly located on the base circle of the lobe. At this position the valve is
closed and there is no lift taking place. How will you know when the valve you are adjusting is in the proper position with the lifter on the base
circle of the cam? This can be accomplished by watching the movement of the valves.
1. When the engine is hot (at operating temperature) remove the valve covers and pick the cylinder you are going to adjust.
2. Hand turn the engine in its normal direction of rotation while watching the exhaust valve on that particular cylinder. When the
exhaust valve begins to open, stop and adjust that cylinder’s intake valve. (Why? Because when the exhaust is just beginning to open,
the intake lifter will be on the base circle of the lobe, so the intake is the one we can now adjust.)
3. Use a feeler gauge, set to the correct valve lash, and place it between the tip of the valve stem and rocker arm. Adjust until you
arrive at the proper setting and lock the adjuster in place.
4. After the intake valve has been adjusted, continue to rotate the engine, watching that same intake valve. The intake valve will go to
full lift and then begin to close. When the intake is almost closed, stop and adjust the exhaust valve on that particular cylinder. (Again,
when we see the intake valve almost closed, we are sure that the exhaust lifter is on the base circle of the lobe.) Use the feeler gauge
and follow the procedure described before in step 3.
5. Both valves on this cylinder are now adjusted, so move to your next cylinder and follow the same procedure again. In the future you
may find shortcuts to this method, but it still remains the best way to do the job correctly.
http://www.cranecams.com/pdf-tech-tips/mech-lift.pdf*********************************************
Now this is odiously talking about a V8 with lifters etc... BUT this looks valid fro our engines too?
I'm thinking that this is a correct way to look at adjusting the 2.0 valves on our Pintos... BUT I have always adjusted them cold... ? This seems to make sense to get the cam in the right position to adjust the gap to the correct spec. Does this translate to our 2.0 in your opinion?
What do you guys think?