Am I doing this the right way...

[Super-G]

I have a 69 440 HP motor in my 73 Challenger. It has 906 heads with a hydraulic cam. Don't know the specs on the cam but it's not a stocker. I'd say about half way between totally radical and bone stock. A nice lope but still pulls nice vacuum.

The motor has great oil pressure and pulls strong.

I've noticed slight valve tapping sounds coming from under the passenger side valve cover. I popped it open and found adjustable rocker arms with some slight play in some of them.

Now I've adjusted rockers before but never on a Mopar.

The method I've used is to roll the motor over until the particular cyl is on the compression stroke. Then I tighten the rocker down until the pushrod starts to drag and go another 1/4 turn. I did that on all the rockers and fired the motor up. The ticking was gone until it came up to temp and I drove it around the block.

I'm thinking that the adjusting assy's are older and coming slightly loose?

Any additional thoughts?

 

[moparleo]

It sounds like someone else had the motor built. Different brands of valvetrain parts have different specs on adjusting the rockers. Get used to doing valve adjustments.
Older models of GM used a screwed in stud,ball rocker arm that you adjusted the way you remember. Most Mopars used a shaft mounted rocker arm assembly which is more stable than individual mounted rockers. These normally used hydraulic lifters and were not adjustable. You would just torque the shafts to spec. The only way to adjust these were by using shims beneath the shafts or adjustable pushrods. This is why most all current domestic engines have hydraulic valves. Good performance, low maintenance. Most valve adjustments on solid lifters require the engine to be at operating temperature before adjusting. This is because the valves and related parts expand when hot. This will normally make the rockers too tight if properly adjusted but with a cold motor. Solid lifters cams normally require using flat feeler gauges to adjust the proper preload on the intake and exhaust valves so they are adjusted properly at operating temp. Really, adjustable valve trains will allow slight differences in duration to be achieve by loosening or tightening rockers.
The ultimate setup is over head cams with direct cam to valve contact.

 

[Adrian Worman]

Simply try another quarter of a turn to preload the lifter enough, but if that hasn't done the trick then you need to look further.
Std stamped steel rocker arms or something nice like Crane Gold rollers?