Adjusting valve clearance on your bench

[petex19]

I read that valve clearance can be done on your bench having the head removed.
My question is regarding the paper cam box gasket. Would you need to have two of them because the one you use to adjust valve clearance will have to be tossed and replaced with a new one when engine is assembled on the block? Or do you bolt down the cam box with no gasket just to adjust valve clearance and then use the gasket on engine assembly?

 

[Dan Sarandrea (Phila)]

Your question implies that you perceive a need to separate the cam box from the head at some point after they are mated together off the engine but prior to being installed on the block. If you have the correct factory head bolt tooling (or equivalent) that allows tightening the head fasteners in situ, there's no need to separate the cam box from the head after the joined head + cambox assy are applied to the block.

If you don't have the tools, then any tightening/retorquing of the head bolts requires that the cam box come off, simply because the shape of the cambox and the recessed positioning of the head bolts does not give you a straight shot at all of the head bolts on the manifold side of the engine.