Larry, Schubeck recommended a light to almost no preload on his lifters, so I went with my normal zero preload. Even with a hydraulic flat tappet, the zero preload works fine (in my experience) if a little extra noise doesn't bother you. When I adjust the valves, I'll spin the pushrod with my finger tips while I tighten the rocker until there's the slightest drag on the pushrod. Then I tighten the poly loc and move to the next valve. I've never lost a lobe and I haven't experienced valve float with a hydraulic cam. I'll keep doing it that way until something breaks, then I'll reevaluate my procedure. :)
The Schubeck lifters are pretty cool. Even though I had some trouble with them in the beginning, they seem to be working as advertised now. The down side to them is they come with a premium price - about $60 each, plus $100 for the drill fixture, and a seemingly endless wait after you order them. Some other things I added for high rpm safety are a Moroso blueprinted high volume oil pump (the Schubeck lifters bleed off a lot of oil), an ARP oil pump drive, 6 qt pan w/ Redline synthetic oil, a diamond stripper windage tray, ARP main studs, and a precision balance job performed by Scat. Oh, and a K&N oil filter with a plugged by-pass so 100% of the oil is filtered. Herb -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Larry Williams Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 8:46 PM To: The Chevelle Mailing List Subject: Re: [Chevelle-list] What to do with my 396?? > > > Herb, I have had discussions for hours about the preload on my BB. GM says 1/2 turn. I have used from 1 turn to 1/4, but never used zero. Not even Comp Cams will go there. I will try Zero for my next trip to the strip. I do realized that you have other components that aid with your performance. Especially the light rollers. Really cool! Just hope I don't blow the BB up winding it past 6K possibly to 7K. I have cast stuff, but I am willing to go for it. Larry
