I have an extremely noisy valve tap on the driver side valves. I pulled my plugs the other day and the number 5 plug was black and it had thick sludge around it. Is this a sign of the valve that is tapping. If so how do I go about adjusting it to get rid of te tap?

assuming you have an hydralic cam... you make sure the cam is on the bottom of the lobe, so its not making any lift, then loosen the nut, and you tighten the nut on top till you feel some resistance when you turn the pushrod, then add 1/4-1/2 turn to it....

according to my factory repair manual for 1970 chevelles and el caminos, loosen the rocker arm nut and while tightening the nut back up, spin/twist the push rod as slpin mentioned. When you start to feel some resistance in the push rod, the repair manual says to tighten the rocker arm nut one more turn. I just did this procedure on my 396 motor as I had a valve tap when the motor warmed up. As there is no real way of "adjusting" hydraulic lifters, this seemed to solve my tapping problem. Hope this helps.

Start it up with valve cover off,,,tighten valve lash til it quits clattering then go another 1/4-1/2 turn,then adjust the rest while the valve cover is off, I know its messy but I've had my best luck adjusting hydraulic cams that way.

Thanks guys, the tap is very very low now Ill make some more adjustments.......I appreciate the help!

well from my recent experience..... im thinking the lobe could be ate off and it isnt opening the exhaust valve causeing it to be very black...... but let me tell u know if u find that it is the cam get it changed fast and dont drive it much at all.....i had 3 lobes ate off and then we put a new cam in and now im haveing to rebuild cause i lost oil press.....dont drive it with the metal flake floating around in the motor..... not a good thing for those bearings down below........ :rolleyes: if u tighten ur rocker arm up and it goes away and then it comes back....and if it starts poping back threw the carb......its more than likely gonna be a cam prob........i know from experience graemlins/sad.gif