My friend just removed the heads on his '89 Ram with a 360 Gas, now he thinks that the valves don't need to be adjusted, but I can't find the specs to show him, if anyone out there knows the valve adjustment spec it would be much appreciated.

Thanks..
Jared

 

He's right. It's got hydraulic lifters and non-adjustable rockers.

 

Yup, bolt the rocker shafts down and away you go

 

yup, didn't know that thanks!

 

Not trying to be smart, but the way you worded this makes it sound as tho your friend removed the heads and with the heads removed is trying to adjust the valves. I can't quite tie in the relationship between removing the heads and then figuring out the valves do not need adjusting.

 

Mexstan , he pulled the engine from the truck due to a blown head gasket, tore it all apart, cleaned it up , and is now re-assembling it. He bolted the heads on tonight , does this make more sense now?

What Hillbilly was meaning was should the valve lash be set after the heads are installed? ( i think)

I thought the same thing as dave , but I am not overly familiar with those engines. I have worked on some tractors before (Case IH MXM series) that have hydraulic lifters , but still require that the valve lash be set to specifications (and I have no idea why)

 

Yes it does. Thanks for clarifying this.
If it were my engine I would have done one more step considering all this work. i would have pulled each hydraulic lifter, cleaned them out, filled them with oil and reinstalled them. If he still does this, it is very important not to mix the parts from each lifter.

 

Hillbilly,

I hope he put all the lifters back in the same holes they came out of. The only concern with the lash is if he did the valves and any of the seats had to be cut deeper than expected. Sometimes you can get into trouble with the lifter not being able to collapse far enough. In that case the valve stem must be ground shorter or a shorter push rod must be used. But If he did not do the valves it should be fine. Did he put in rings, bearings and a timing chain too?

On a gasser from that era it seems like a good idea to put in a cam and lifters while you're there. A mild cam tuned for torque, not tuned for smog. The 360 is a great engine.

Wetspirit

 

I don't think he did any of the above, I'm not totally sure that he even took the pistons out , the cam out , lifters out , etc. I know a new oil pump was installed, but no rod or main bearings were installed AFAIK.

 

They used to have some shims for rocker arm adjustment. I know several guys who did this when they shaved warped heads back to true. Several companies also sell high quality custom pushrods, based on a mockup rod you install and set. I have also seen adjustable pushrods for many applications, which may be an option. If is just stock parts going back on, then as long as all parts go in the same places, there shouldn't be anything special required.

 

Tighten the rocker shaft bolts, throw the covers on, and fire it up. No adjustment needed. There is no adjustment on a stock 360.