Background:
Original 3.0L 1978 factory installed engine. Never been apart. Had regular valve adjustments and oil changed throughout life. All documented.
What happened:
Well it all came apart fine. No head-studs or nuts broken off rolling around in the valve covers, so that was good. Cam lobes all look fantastic.
so...
Nearly all my valves seemed too tight.
I put the engine at TDC and checked #1. I felt like I had the pull on the tappet when adjusting and they sort of "clicked" back a bit (normal?). I would undo the 13mm and then turn the screw back and adjust it down on the feeler gauge just enough so I could slip the gauge out easily. After the first valve it all seemed so easy and simple. I rotated the engine 120 degrees just as it said, having to adjust all but 2 valves for more clearance.
I was so pleased with how things went. Upgraded to silicons valve cover gaskets. New dist. cap and rotor yadda yadda yadda. Until... I started it.
I was surprised I now have a much more noisy engine that feels like its down on power. At first it seemed ok but then a rythmic ticking noise would come on at 2,000RPMS and as the engine heated up it got worse. Then I took it for a drive, red line just didn't pull like before. Now it ticks all the time like starting a hydraulic
lifter car after it has been sitting a long time.
What's the likelyhood of serious damage?
I'm really feeling like I never should have done the adjustment in first place. I had a very quiet and powerful drive-train before and I only did it because I put 10,000km on the car since I bought it and figured better to adjust then not adjust.
Rant:
BTW the valve adjustment tool sold on here with the screwdriver built in sucks big time, its unusable on the intake valves, there is no space. I ended up using a 13mm and a screwdriver which was much easier.
Complete waste of $50. Maybe if the engine was out of the car and I had little experience using standard tools or something. I don't know, who the heck designed that?
Feeler gauge feeder tool is also a waste, wish I got the proper original tool and swap blades. I hated that I had to bend the gauge feed to fit the recess.
Should have been a $10 tab with better tools and not $80 with crap. grrr.