ok i bought a 71 chevelle a long time ago and took the engine out of it and put it into my camaro,the engine was not all orignal it has screw in studs and guid plates and the engines crank was ballanced and i changed intake and put on a new oil pan and such but never looked at the lifters. Today i went to adjust them by putting the engine at TDC then going 45 degrees and adjusting the valves by taking the slack out of em in the correct order and upon trying to start it is spun really fast and didnt start no compression so i backed them all up 1/4 turn and the engine started. I tried adjusting them while the engine was running but no avail. I have come to the conclusion there is a solid lifter cam in the engine so i got out the feeler gauge and adjusted them all accordingly to the manual there all pretty loose and the engine runs fine but is loud clickety clack it that supposed to be like that with solid lifters?

What clearance did you use? Acoording to what manual? "Most" aftermarket solid cams use 0.016" or 0.018" for the intake and 0.018" or 0.020" for the exhaust. Some factory solid lift cams use as much as 0.030" clearance. The old 30-30 cam has a noticeable valve noise. You would need to determine the maker of the cam and cam part# to know for sure what clearance to use.

IF it is indeed a solid cam start at say .022" intake and .024" exhaust.

Then go from there.

If it is a hy-cam, start at a quarter turn down from the pushrods NOT spinning between your thumb and finger!!

pdq67

i used .024 intake .030 exhaust i used the specs from a camaro book i had. also am i supused to do it after the engine warms up or befor when its cold? i will try with the .022 intake and .024 exhaust and see what happens then even smaller if thats not allrite. I adjusted and built other engines with hydrolic cams and never had a problem thats why im stumped on this one.I always adjusted with the rod spinning between my fingers then an extra 1/4 to 1/2 turn more.i will try a few different settings because i definitly dont want to pull it apart to see what cam it has in it.its definitly not a stock cam so the settings are to big.

You always adjust lash on solids hot.

Is there anyway to find out what cam it is ? I am running a comp cam and my recomended settings are 0.016 and 0.018. Rick is right ,do them hot. I do one side then warm up engine again for other side.