Valve Lash Caps
 

Anyone here use them ? Setting up valve geometry on a 302 with Trick Flow TW heads. On the exhaust valve by putting a lash cap on and using a 7.45" push rod I have a perfect mark in middle of cap about .040 wide.
By holding my finger on the cap I can get a .0015 feeler gauge under it . How much clearance do I need ? Is it OK to run like this ? If not OK to run could I grind a little off the caps or do I need to change keepers ? I have never used lash caps before so need help .. Thanks

First of all, do not grind the lash caps. They need to be perfect so they will contact the roller tip and transfer the lift to the keepers//retainers.

I always run lash caps if I have a soild roller cam. No matter if you run them or not, the last purchase should be the pushrods.

The following are things that can change your required length:

Head gasket thickness
Block decked
Heads milled
Valve seats too high or ground too low
Base circle on the cam

Good luck, Dave

I bought some but they did not snap on real tight and I decided to leave em off....Maybe I'm just paranoid but I am afraid they will end up some place I don't want em if a rocker comes loose etc.

Good move. It's best to buy a matched set as they do fit rather good. The first ones on the market did not have a hole in them and it was really hard to remove them once they had been run (suction lock). They finally realized to drill a hole to prevent this. Dave

While we're on the subject, i have always run lash caps also with a solid roller setup. BUT :?: I now have a T&D setup on my new sm/blk engine, i know the T&D's don't move around side to side like the reg. roller rockers do, so you guys running T&D and Jessel shaft still run the lash caps. I do have the lash caps for the heads, and haven't ordered the pushrods yet, because i need to measure for the length when i set the geomerty, No guide plates on these heads and .180 offset intake lifters.

Zip.

Zipp, if your valves are not hardened tips the Manton Lash Locks work great.

http://www.competitionproducts.com/M.../NME603431-16/

The intakes are 2.140 Tit, and have the hardened tips, the ex are 1.6 stainless, Brodix 10's,RP,FP, i'm thinking i'll set them without lash caps and keep a close eye on them.

Zip.

Just to update:
I ended up using the lash caps on the exhaust side only . I ground enough off the bottoms to have .005 clearence between cap and keepers. I now have things set up using same size push rod for all . If I had not used the lash caps I would have had to use a 7.5 or longer push rod on the exh side and using a longer pushrod I feared rocker stud shearing off as rocker travel was right there against it. this was with Trick Flow TW 170cc heads and Miller rockers with hyd flat lifters.