Setting Valve Lash on 1966 Dodge Charger with Poly 318 V8 

"Poly" is short for polyspherical. It's what Dodge used to describe the combustion chamber shape on these engines. The Poly came out in 1955 and ran until they came out with the LA style in 1967. There are several different sizes and variations. Check this out: www.hotrod.com/articles/mopp-0109-chryslers-poly-head-engine/

One of my 66 chargers that I had,had a 318 with mechanical lifters,what a big pain in the ass it was adjusting them all the time

Why is there little to no oil coming up? I could never understand the reasoning for this valve adjustment method.

I've done the "Hot and Running" valve lash procedure on a Slant Six and never had that much difficulty. Of course, the "Slanty" won't spill much if any oil in the direction of the exhaust manifold when the valve cover is off; the best thing is to do the valve adjustment just prior to doing an oil change anyway, as you'll lose about half a quart unless you're quick. Given that on the "Poly" A block (most of the 'survivors' are 318s, but Canadian engines were 313s, IDK why, though in '67 some "leftover" 318s were installed in Chrysler Canada vehicles) the engine oil would run on the exhaust manifolds, greater care to guard against fire must be employed (but keeping an extinguisher handy should be typical shop practice ANYWAY), I'd suggest putting an old towel on top of the exhaust manifold to catch splashing oil. IF you're that skittish about the "hot and running" procedure, if you get the engine sufficiently warmed up and can worked fairly fast, the pushrods and rocker arms won't cool off enough to alter the clearances that much. If you can get a breaker bar and socket on the crank pulley, and yank the coil wire (to prevent accidental starting), just mark the distributor with the marking in the firing positions for each cylinder, and make note of the firing order (usually stamped conspicuously on the manifold). Staring with #1 at TDC, adjust that cylinder's valves, then crank the engine to the next firing position, do that cylinder, then move on. The procedure should take but a few minutes as long as you can readily and precisely crank the engine. Of course, often the valve adjustment comes at about the same interval as yanking the plugs and cleaning and/or replacing, so manual turning of the engine ought to be easier. In some cases, you can even move the crank pulley or the fan belts by hand (DON'T do that on the water pump!) when the plugs are out. BTW, the 273 "LA" engine, introduced in mid-'64 for the Dart, Valiant, and the "A"-body Barracuda, also had solid tappets (from '64 to '67), and AFAIK did for both the stock 2-barrel and the relatively few "performance" 4-barrel units.

Ran across the factory spec sheet for 318's and 273's in 1966. On a hot engine, Intake was supposed to be 0.013" and Exhaust was supposed to be 0.021". image.ibb.co/jmufp7/1966_Dodge_Poly318_Valve_Cl_Hot.jpg

are the magnum 318 motor tuff as this 318 poly

is the 318 a tuff motor

lot easier at 450-500 rpm ,engine needs to be at operating temp

Poly?

should like it was missing bad

Well that was completely incorrect. Not worth doing unless it's right.

no sense doing it while running