So I'm replacing some old valve cover gaskets, and I thought I'd look at the valve lash while I'm in there with a set of feeler gauges.

I read the sticky, and spent a while reading various threads on this.

Looks like one of the easiest ways is to rotate the engine backwards with the 7/8" nut on the alternator pulley, right ?

Wrong, not on my motor, anyway. The 7/8" nut just unscrews if you try to rotate the engine backwards, no matter what.

Any other ideas ? I don't have a lot of specialized tools...

 

it was out of gear right?

 

I used a flat bar and the fan pulleys bolts to turn mine over....

 

It's called the engine barring tool. You can get one from Cummins for under $40.00 bucks. Access cover is on the engine to transmission adapter on the passenger side.

They are available from many places, I found the best price right at Cummins.

Here's what it looks like if you've never seen one;

http://www.amazon.com/ATC7471A-Cummi.../dp/B00063YWUK

 

Yep, out of gear. It rotates a tiny bit, but then that little nut comes loose, every time.

Maybe a big wrench or pair of big vise grips on the large nut behind the fan ?

 

Try rotating it the in the opposite direction. I had the same problem until I went in the opposite direction - tighenting the alternator nut.

Bob

 

Wound up going with the nut behind the fan. Got #6 at what looked like "crossover," or near enough, checked valves in sequence "Intake 1, 2, and 4 Exhaust 1, 3, and 5." Then got #1 to "crossover" and checked the other valves "Intake 3, 5, and 6 Exhaust 2, 4, and 6."

Some of them were pretty loose, and the black gaskets were crispy. Guess I found the leak.

Cleaned the hell out of the valve covers and everything near them I could fit a rag into, now they look great. New gray gaskets, new o-rings.

Then the battery was almost stone dead !

All I had on was the hood light and occasionally the inside light, for a couple hours.

Wouldn't take a jump, would barely, weakly crank once hooked up to another vehicle and that battery was stone dead again. Heating circuit really drains it down too.

So now I get to buy a battery before I see what the valve adjustment did.

 

The reason why the nut loosens when You turn backward could be bc it was installed with a wrench or ratchet not a impact wrench. If You tighten the nut with this, next time You try to turn it backward it won't loosen it.

 

if you have the numbers at hand, can you indicate the part numbers you used for the o-rings and gray gaskets?
Let us know how your tuck sounds and feels, once you get it started again.
Thanks.

 

3910824 SEAL ORINGASSY 6 1.63
3930906 GASKET COVER 5 5.97
This is what I got for the grey gasket and the o-rings. Its copied and pasted from the original invoice. Ignore the 5 gaskets, I already had one!!!

 

check all your grounds and connections before you buy a battery

 

oh about a 1 1/2 wrench on the fan nut, i do it all the time it works great

 

I use a fan wrench 36mm Snapon SP346 works great had it for many years.

 

Took the old battery in, it wouldn't hold a charge very well, pretty iffy actually.

Way, way past warranty, like 4 years past. So I just bought the one with the most CCAs I could find. Starts instantly, looks like alternator is charging it fine.

As far as the valves go, it seems to run a little smoother with a little more get up and go, but only a tiny bit. In any case, good peace of mind.

Now to figure out a way to get all that dried oil off of the engine that came out the crispy old gaskets. Lots of little spaces that are hard to get a rag into on there...maybe I'll find a car wash that has a steam cleaning deal in it...