TA sells specific lifters for the 67-69 engines. Why do that if it didn't matter? The ball end of your pushrods won't mate up correctly with the later lifters. Read No Lift's last post. If the heads are coming off, convert over to through the push rod oiling.
Those are painfully expensive, but there might not be any other way. I'm very quickly about to run out of money.
Hit the junkyard for a red or blue 455 and grab the pushrods and complete rocker shafts with bolts for $25.00. I say blue so you wont have to be chasing down numbers. Since you already have the PR oiler type lifters, you wont even need to replace them. The CID numbers are cast on top just behind the intake manifold. All 455s had oil through the PRs. I went through the same deal on a '68 430 with rebuilt 455 (unknown to me!) heads. That job after about 6 months beat up the valve stems and rocker tips. The shop covered them but not my labor. At the time, even they didnt realize the difference.I went pickin' and grabbed the lifters, rods and rockers off a 455 and it was all good then. Make sure each PR is clear with air including the pin holes for oil on the rockers. ws
Talked to Tim at TA, said that guys have been running early style rocker shafts and pushrods with later style lifters for years. It's a matter of preference, and should not affect anything. I'm going to listen to him, seeing as TA knows what's going on on a personal/business level. His advice was very assuring, also meaning I don't need to spend more money
I also double checked and found I'd installed the camshaft 180* out. Glad I saw that or wow I'd be hurting. I'd probably be out of a car. Also got the stuck header stub that remained after I snapped a bolt out of a head. All ready for shorty headers, those bolts, and headgaskets now....
I also double checked and found I'd installed the camshaft 180* out. Cant happen... turn the crank one full turn (360*) wouldve corrected that. (2:1 ratio) 90* wouldve been a problem! Didja run a bottom tap into those bolt holes and blow them clean with air? ws
I put the two dots on the gears both in the 12 o clock position. Instead of the cam gear at 6 and the crank gear at 12
X2 on what Bill said. Been there done that in my early days. Installed a cam and the car wouldn't start and backfired. A "car" guy said you installed the cam 180* out. So there I was taking the timing cover off and re-aligning the cam. What he should have said to me was I installed the cam 180* out in lining up the dots (as you had done) for my initial startup position so you need to change the distributer by 180* from where it was installed. I did 2 hours of work vs. 2 minutes of work that I should have done. Live and learn. As far as the pushrod goes there should be no problem with the solid pushrod covering the hole in the lifter as far as I know. The '70 and up lifter has a 5/16" cup while the '69 and down has a 3/8" cup which matches the 3/8" ball end of the solid pushrod. The setup you propose may work perfectly as Tim from TA has said. You may luck out. Not affecting something is a completely different story. It'll make a difference in lifter preload. The odds are that it will have too much preload because the 3/8" ball is sitting high in a 5/16" cup. However you may have a cam which has a smaller base circle than the factory cam which will remove some preload which may put you in the sweet spot of .030" or so. You may luck out. However from the factory Buick usually built in a large amount of preload. So who knows what you will end up with? I know this much, if after getting the car going, the engine runs into valve float at a too low rpm you have too much preload. The adjustable pushrods allow you to set the correct preload. I don't think there will be a problem starting and running the car like that but watch out for valve float. If it is there it will feel like the engine is shutting off at higher rpm.
How do I put the heat crossover plugs in place? What method do people use to get them to stay I'm installing a lot of stuff over the next few days so I will need a lot of help.
Drive them in. Then stake them at an angle from the head side edge toward the plug in three or four places like you do gallery plugs.
Do you have vernier calipers? Are the holes clean metal or do they have a lot of carbon? If latter, you might get in the holes with a flapper wheel, or sandpaper taped and wrapped around a dowel and chuck it in a drill to clean it up. I use wooden dowels and cut a slot in the end, use long stripes of sandpaper wound around and chuck them in a 1/2 drill to clean and polish galleries and such, then tear of the outside wrap as it gets used up. You should not need to take off much to get them in and you want them snug. I have used a socket, or brass punch the same diameter of the cup when driving plugs, and then go very slow. You do not want to tap on the walls of the cup/plug so it does not "expand" outward, you want to drive it from the "bottom" of the "cup".
