[Shockwave78]

Originally Posted by 78w72

Did you do the adjustment right with the new nuts? Positive the engine was a TDC of compression stroke and you adjusted the correct lifters based on that link? Just asking since I/we dont know how much mechanical experience you have. I recently tried to help a guy from another country adjust his rockers and even after sending the link & a couple youtube videos... he just tightened all the rockers to "zero lash" then added 1/2 turn to all the rockers at one time, didnt work out to well and took him a few tries to get it right, engine is running good for him now.

Also, if the crower lifters say 1/2 turn, thats what they should be set to... 1/2 turn past zero lash is not a lot, most HFT lifters recommend that unless they are the type that say 1/4 turn.

Leak down tester- Check with local auto part stores, they may offer a free rental for this. or get the warm cranking compression numbers to help others on here diagnose the issue.

Gas droplets on the windshield- I have had that happen on a couple engines that ran great when I would remove the shaker scoop & add a velocity stack to look cool would very get small amounts of gas droplets from holley & q-jet carbs when driving at normal speeds... reverberation or not, the engine ran great with or without the air cleaner removed so i dont think thats part of the issue your having.

After trying some of the tests mentioned above to identify the issue, you may need to pull the timing cover to check cam timing & timing chain alignment... but if you are sure the chain/gears were installed right, i dont think not degreeing the cam is causing the problems, i have installed cams straight up that run great. its easy to get the timing chain off a tooth or even installed 180 off if following chevy manuals.

I did not do the rocker arm adjustment exactly like in the link, I rotated the engine over to each cylinder in firing order and adjusted each on tdc of the compression stroke, which should have the same result. I have not done a full engine teardown/rebuild before this, but have done basically everything else there is to do on a stock engine, I've been working on cars/engines similar to this one for about 7 years. As far as the gas droplets and vapor out of the top of the carb, it is only at WOT and it has enough velocity to curve back and hit the middle/top of the windshield. I will be checking the timing today with the method as Cliff said, I will look into renting a leak-down tester and doing the warm compression test as well. The more tests I do the more it looks like a cam timing issue as many have said, but if nothing else it is a learning experience.