7 7.

HEADS AND VALVETRAIN Checking PTV Clearance - Dial Indicator & Checker Springs Method
Checking the clearance from the piston to the valve is critically important when building a highperformance engine. A minimum PTV clearance is required so the valves and piston do not make physical contact during engine operation. With an aggressive camshaft the need to check PTV clearance becomes even more important. For this 383 build, the selected camshaft was on the milder side, and the Wiseco pistons had large valve reliefs, so there were no PTV problems anticipated. See Figure 98 below for a visual of the valve interfacing with the piston valve relief.

Figure 98: Exhaust Valve Interfacing With Piston Valve Relief at TDC The following sections are written for checking PTV clearance on cylinder number 1, with the degree wheel zeroed to TDC for cylinder number 1 (see Section 6.10). In addition to measuring the PTV clearance directly, it can also be calculated using indirect measurements from the engine components. See Appendix X. 7.1.1 Measurement Setup The first step is to install checker springs on the intake valve and exhaust valve on a loose cylinder head as shown in Figure 99 below. The checker springs are so you can cycle the valve up and down by hand, as they are much weaker than normal valve springs.

Page 80 of 105

Checker Springs

Figure 99: Checker Springs Installed If the heads are already assembled, then it is necessary to remove the valve springs with a valve spring removal tool. There are many options for this tool, in different types and configurations. Avoid the cheap tools that grab the spring coils, use only tools that press on the spring retainer. For this project, a "reach-around" type tool was used as shown in Figure 100 below. After the valve springs are removed, re-install the checker springs with the same valve retainers and locks.

Figure 100: Valve Spring Tool After the checker springs are installed, the head can be bolted to the block. Prior to bolting down the head it is necessary to take the following steps as described below:

Page 81 of 105

Install the head alignment dowels (Figure 101a). There are 2 of these per deck, they can be tapped in gently with a hammer. Thread in a few head studs by hand (Figure 101b). Only 3-4 are needed at this stage, use a small allen wrench to thread them in if necessary to overcome friction in the threads. Do not torque them down more than hand tight. Insert 2 lifters with a lifter tray and bolt the tray down to the block (Figure 101c). No need to use solid lifters here, as the nominal spring force in the lifter will exceed that of the checker springs. Place a new or used head gasket on the deck (Figure 101d). Either is fine because you will not fully torque down the head, therefore the gasket will not be crushed.

a c
Figure 101: Preparing the Block for Checking PTV Clearance

b d

Next, ensure the cylinder number 1 cam lobes are on the base circle. Place the head gently on the block and torque down the nuts only hand tight. Ensure the head is seated squarely and evenly on the deck. Don't fully torque the head studs at this stage. In order to properly measure PTV clearance, the valvetrain needs to be setup with "zero lash". Zero lash can be defined as "when the pushrod rod is just long enough to take the clearance out of the valve train with the lifter on the base circle of the cam" (Ref. 30). When measuring PTV clearance with the dial indicator method and checker springs (the purpose of this section), it is required to use an adjustable length pushrod to achieve zero lash without any preload on the lifter. This is because a pushrod that is too long will push the valve open when tightening the rocker arms - resulting in an incorrect reading for PTV clearance. This happens because the checker springs are much weaker than the spring inside the lifter. A pushrod that is too short will also cause faulty readings. Insert the adjustable length pushrod as shown in Figure 102 below. Page 82 of 105

Adjustable Length Pushrod

Figure 102: Adjustable Length Pushrod Installed Install the rocker arm and adjust the pushrod to achieve zero lash. Be sure not to compress the checker spring. Now the system is ready to measure the PTV clearance. 7.1.2 Measuring PTV Clearance For this build the PTV clearance was the tightest at 25 from TDC. The crankshaft was rotated clockwise slowly until the degree wheel read 340 on the exhaust stroke. Pressing down the exhaust valve until it contacted the piston indicated that there was ample clearance at this point (over 0.250"). Basically the point here is to rotate the engine forward in small increments and check the clearance by pressing down the exhaust valve and intake valves. Before TDC, the exhaust valve will be the potential culprit, and the intake valve PTV clearance will be tightest after TDC. If the engine has large PTV clearances (as this build did) then you likely do not need a dial indicator setup. If you check carefully by hand, you can get a reliable "feel" for what constitutes adequate clearance. If checking with a dial indicator is necessary, you can set it up as shown in Figure 103 below. Although the magnetic bridge stand will obviously not hold to the aluminum heads, firm even pressure with a steady hand will hold the bridge stand sufficiently in place. Alternatively, a setup as shown in X will also work. Set the dial indicator probe on the retainer and adjust the dial indicator bezel to zero when the camshaft is on the base circle. Slowly rotate the engine forward and press the valves down by hand until the valves contact the piston, allowing the dial indicator to travel with the retainer. Take several measurements before and after TDC. Multiply the measurements by the Cosine of the valve angle (15 in this case) to get the actual PTV clearance.

Page 83 of 105

Figure 103: Holding Dial Indicator to Measure PTV Clearance Minimum recommended clearances are shown in Table 28 below. The measured clearances for this 383 build are shown in Table 29.

Valve
Intake Exhaust

Minimum Recommended PTV Clearance

0.080" 0.100"

Table 28: Minimum Recommended PTV Clearances (Ref. 29)

Crank Position
341.0 346.5 352.5 359.0 358.5 6.5 12.5 18.0

Measured Value, Exhaust (in) 0.309 0.274 0.258 0.269

-

Measured Value, Intake (in)

-

Actual PTV Clearance (in)* 0.298 0.265 0.249 0.260 0.293 0.272 0.286 0.321

0.303 0.282 0.296 0.332

*These values were calculated by multiplying the measured values by Cos(15)

Table 29: Measured PTV Clearances

Page 84 of 105