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I am in middle of rebuild and am about to place the head back on block and have some questions. By the way this is my first engine build and am a little hesitant. I have been following fulla luv rebuild but still have some questions. I had my head built at machine shop with a new delta cam. Where i am confused or hesitant is placing the head on itself. Front cover is on and cylinders 1 and 4 are top dead center. My question is what should the valves look like on the head. Im not sure if the shop tightened every thing down but i can't turn the cam with my hand. 2 and three valves are open.

Any thoughts or help would be apreaciated.

OX

with a custom grind no doubt they installed stiffer valve springs the get the best performance... (i have yet to pull the head on this engine) but with most others stock or aftermarket can i would throw a ratchet on the cam gear bolt and use the leverage to align the cam marks

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Friends don't let friends drive stock...
76 mikado, emissions delete, dual alternator, rejetted 1.9 carb swap, non factory body lines
soon non points distributor, single (semi sealed beam) head light conversion

There is s mark on the front rocker arm bracket. When the cam is at TDC (and the head ready to install assuming the crank
& chain are in the right place) both the mark on the cam and the dowel that locates the cam gear should be up and aligned with the bracket mark. Then look at the directions for adjusting the valves, any valve it says to adjust at TDC is fully closed (adjuster is not touching the valve stem, you can wriggle the rocker arm), the rest are open varying amounts. You should be able to hand turn the cam by sticking the cam gear on loosely & using it for leverage. Make sure the cam is lubed well & I would use cam break-in lube on the newly surfaced lobes.
I don't know of any stiffer springs, if you didn't specifically tell the machine shop to install some they put stock ones in.
One other thing, if you have very little adjuster left after setting the valve lash you may want to go with elephant foot adjusters or valve stem/lash caps, and make sure you set the lash to the cam specs provided, they may be different than stock.
Edit: Look at the post just above this one "1.8 timing marks", it has pictures!

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'78 Chevy LUV,1.9,4sp,headers,31's,SAS Dana 30,Dana 20,SOA rear w/Aussie Locker, rough body, bought new 12/4/78.
'87 Trooper,2.3,5sp,headers,31's,ball joint flip & spacer,Aussie Locker rear,Superwinch hubs,brush guard w/5.5K winch,more to come.

One more tip: Before you lay on the head gasket put a dab of sealer (with your finger) in the tiny crack between the block and the front cover. Will prevent a small irritating oil leak after assembly.

Glad I looked at the 1.8 post, it has good info. I was getting very irritable doing the chain install the new chain and the old one did not have the bottom marking plate on it. So ws not sure what the hell to do. I eventually placed the chain and timing sprocket so the hole for the cam was a t the top. And when I align all the marks on the oil pump they way it says the shaft doesn’t line up aligned in the distributer whole its off...

So Im banging my head against the wall!

With the head, i cannot turn it with my hand, so Im thinking that he just tightened it down so things did not nock around. All the alignments are correct so should just loosen and gap them correctly. Have to call Delta to see what they should be.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Bump

Still need some thoughts on timing chain...