Well, there you are, then. I donno about you, but I stay away from Fords for a very good reason.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Well, in a previous life I worked as a mechanic in a general garage and at a couple of Ford dealerships... kind of hard to avoid them in that situation. I've never owned one though and it's unlikely that I ever will.

Unrelated, but perhaps of some interest... my grandfather invented a diagnostic device for the Model-T ignition system. As is often the case, he was a day late and a dollar short as the Model-T was discontinued shortly afterward.

_________________
David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Okay ......
Way back when ............. ( I'm 66 years old )
My buddy and I had a Race car shop in Detroit.
Probably 75 % of our work was head work, comp valve jobs, port
matching, etc.

I have never seen cam wear as you describe from loose valve
adjustment. I have seen excesive cam wear on some small block
Chevys but that was due to the cams being made from too soft metal.
I have never seen a valve head break off due to excesive clearance.
I have seen the bottom of a lifter warn through from getting stuck
in the bore from excesive clearance.
With too much valve lash clearance it does beat hell out of rockers
and valve stem heads.
I will grant you that in some very rare instance anything can happen,
given all the right circumstances. But as I said 99 % of the time the
results will be as SlantSixDan described. I didn't see the need to repeat.
Back then, running NHRA stock, one of the tricks was to run the lash
alittle on the loose side to gain a better top end through the traps.

I once had a 1955 Plymouth V8 that had Hydraulic lifters so loud it
sounded like a Thrashing Machine. I put about 30,000 miles on that
car after replacing the timing chain, it ran fine (just clattered alot .

I had a '68 Dart a few years ago that had a 170 in it. It ran really well and then began to lose power as was evidenced when pulling steep hills or running 70 mph on the interstate. When adjusting the valves, I discovered that the exhaust valves all had too little clearance and were not fully seating, allowing much of the "power" to escape through the exhaust. The intake clearances were spot-on. The Dart was back to it's former self after this adjustment. I expected to find all of the valves with too much clearance, but I did not. The intakes were correct and the exhausts were too tight.

That's common; what you were noticing was valve seat recession. It usually seems to attack the exhaust side first. (I presume because the exhaust valve is physically smaller and has less surface area to transfer the heat through, but I could be wrong.)

_________________
Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Mostly because it's the exhaust valve and runs hotter due to the exhaust going thru it. The intake gets a cooling flow of air when it's not seated, the exhaust gets well the exhaust...........

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Hi,
I am planning to do a valve lash later today on the Valiant and was reading through all of the posts that the search function brought up....As a child growing up, my dad drove a '70 Plymouth Duster with the 225 slant six. He bought it new and drove it until about 1984. I don't know if he ever had the valve lash done....at least not during the later years of it's service. I will always remember that sound of the ticking lifters/valvetrain from the Duster as he arrived home from work everyday....they announced his arrival. I bet I could hear that car a Block away.LOL...nico

First hand experience here.. I bought a 79 Dodge van, it idled like crap when I bought it. I adjusted the valves and I'd say that at least 5 valves were too tight. I know the original owner never had them adjusted. Idled much better after adjustment. Just my 2 cents... P.S, is this Gup's van?

_________________
"MOPAR or NOCAR!"