I am in the process of changing my head gasket on my 96' 3.8 ( Alot of work):/ But I am enjoying it.. My question is when i reinstall my rocker arms and tourqe them down do I have to worry about timing or adjusting the time?(I Have not messed with timing chain). Basically how to I reasemble them too the head?

 

..bump

 

theres a torque rating for the bolts that hold the rockers down just tighten them to that... the timing is done with the cam

 

what about the pushrods? I heard something about having to take lash out or something?

 

New Member - I hope I'm doing this right, if not please advise. Just went through the head gaskets replacement on a 98 V6. Heads were sent to a machine shop and done correctly. New head bolts installed. Everything was torqued to specs. New gaskets except exhaust manifold. While the fuel rail was off I replaced upper and lower injector seals. When I fired it up a burst of blueish smoke came from the engine compartment (drivers side) and the car idles rough. I turned it off and after a couple of minutes started it again. Same thing happened but this time the smoke came from the passenger side. Then it appeared to return to the driver side and still idles rough. This is my first head gasket replacement so what the heck is going on? Could something deeper in the motor be at issue? Thanks for any replys.

 

Are you sure the machine shop installed the seals? Could the intake gasket have slipped?

There is no adjustment on the valves the only problem I can think that would cause a valve issue is is a push rod was not seated right.

 

or a bent valve

 

Dont thread jack foo Start a new thread on the v6 section

 

Thanks - you guys are great. It turns out my lack of experience was the culprit. I decided to fire it up and let her run for about 30 minutes to clear the condensation out of the exhaust and do a general burn off of any remaining residue. She settled down and now runs great. I did find an exhaust leak at the cross over pipe at the end of the exhaust manifold which would explain the burst of blue smoke upon initial start up from the repair. It seems someone lacking in intelligent design had tried to "fix it" so it wasn't seating properly. I cleaned all that up with some grinding, drilling, re- tapping and new bolts. Thanks again for the prompt replies. My first time in the engine was a little scary. Forward in Faith!