panhead rocker tightness

[awander]

I am bolting the '64 head back together, after flattening the head gasket surface, and the exhaust valve rocker is somewhat stiff in it;s movement. I can move it by hand, but it does not move freely like the intake rocker does. I am sure that I didn;t mix the rocker blocks and the rockers, and they are the opne s that came off this head.

My question is, how tight is too tight? I have the rocker block nuts torqued to 20 ft-lb.

[steinauge]

IME if you can move it by hand when it is torqued it will work in.

[Larry]

Tap it on the side with a small hammer.

[awander]

I disassembled the rocker block, took the rocker out, and reassembled/retorqued the block without the rocker arm. I set up an adjuatable reamer to just "kiss" the inside of the blocks, and gave it a few turns.

I repeated that process twice, and once reassembled with teh rocker arm, it is still tighter than the intake, but moves more freely.

PS of course, i cleaned the blocks and the rocker off thouroughly, and lubed with engine oil, before final assembly. i couldn;lt really see whare any metal had been taken off by the reamer-maybe it was just dirty?

[Hauula Pan]

If it moves through its normal range of travel without binding its fine. None of mine are exactly the same. As long as its moving smoothly through its full normal range of travel you should not have any problems.