First, stop double posting, you're going to annoy
@Denny and we dont want that cranky old fart annoyed before he's had his morning coffee.
I'll reset the lash to .03 cold and would it help if I checked warm as well? Also what would be the best way to get 90/0 or 91/0?
No, Static lash is checked cold and set cold to the manufacturers specifications, for a stock engine
(specially stock cams and/or rockers, or someone with little to no actual build experience)
Cold setting them to 0.0 makes the engine a little more cold ambient sensetive during start up, but once the engine starts and begins to warm it operates normally. This is simply because aluminum (the head) and steel (everything else in the head) have different thermal expansion rates and amounts.
An engine at peak operating temp can show as much as 0.03" lash gap change from cold lash, so setting the lash so it has only enough wiggle to know its not holding the valve open means you end up with the correct lash (or within the +/- tolerance range) when you need it to be right.
Ethanol free gas is easiest to find in three general places...
Near Marinas because ethanol binds with water more than it does the gas it is added to... nobody puts that sh!t in a boat.
Near airfields and smaller airports because of the water again, but also another reason I suddenly don't remember... possibly something about fuel temperature at altitude idk.
The third is highly agricultural areas, because ethanol enriched fuel only has a stable shelf life of about 30 days in storage after it leaves the pump into a container. You just don't want ethanol in something that you need to be reliable but only need it 3 or 4 months of the year. It clogs carburetor passages and eats up brass (which both apply to fuel injector nozzles as well)
Products like Stabil help, but they don't fix the issue that 30 and 40 year old gasoline just doesn't have. I have seen cars that sat in a field somewhere up to their rockers in the dirt from sitting for 10,20, 30, even 50 years start and run fine after the rodents are evicted, a good battery was dropped in, and a little fiddling to wake the beast up. You just wont get ethanol fuels to run worth a damn past a year, I know I said 30 days of stability... there are things other than more additives that can extend the shelf life if ethanol gas but it's still on borrowed time compared to good Ole pure Dino juice
Also what if I jet my carb larger and run e85 would that be a good alternative?
No it would not be
Jetting is best based on plug color and throttle responsiveness. There are those more experienced than I that don't even need the plug color, just a quick whiff if the exhaust fumes and how the engine sounds and they just know. Ive been at that point for several years, but I still prefer to confirm by the plug color.
If the plug is dark, and you have a particular "flat spot" in the throttle range... it's safe to say ruat flat spot is a flood zone; lean if the plug is a pale grey like ashes.
These engines do have some valvetrain chatter, especially as things wear in and seat, it's just an inevitability of OHV rockerboxes.
What you need to consider is this "issue" came with a fuel grade change... easy to test theory if it is in fact directly fuel related without having the engine apart poking it cluelessly is just to run it to near empty or drain the tank and put the previous grade gas in it.
Less tap you know it's fuel related
Unchanged, you know it's not and can check other easy to rule out things.
Opening up the engine should always be the last resort of diagnostic method unless you know for sure something inside is wrong.
