Mikebdelsol93

Hi, I recently purchased a 93 del sol with a d15b7, 130k miles. It was running great and I was loving it but I began to notice a slight tick. Nothing crazy but loud enough to make me want to check the valves. Dropped it at a shop and had them do a valve adjustment. It made no difference to thie tick and just made the car idle a little rough when cold but still ran good apart from the idle...Looking online the valve adjustment seemed simple enough so I figured I'd just try and quieten her up myself.

I read tons of forums on doing it before hand and watched several videos. Let the car sit over night. Made sure each cylinder was at tdc when adjusting each valve. I put ex valves at .009 and int at .007. Took my time, double checked everything. Start the car and it's running horrible. Forget the tick, it's running like dog sh$@) now.

Frustrated I leave it alone. I have a mechanic friend come over the next day and re-adjust everything to spec. Same thing.
Then again today I tried again...I mean triple checking everything. No luck. I don't know where I went wrong but hoping someone can help. I know when I initialy started adjusting them myself they were all tighter than spec..or at least I think.

Mikebdelsol93

Should I try resetting the ecu? What's the easiest way to do that if so?

White_EG1

Just pull the ECU back up fuse in the fuse box for 5mins. Id suggest to check youre mechanical timing, if thats good I would give it a compression test.

TomCat39

First off, you most likely adjusted not at TDC just piston TDC.

I did this when I skipped steps and my number #2 and #4 were horribly wrong.

Also, it's better to use .010 and .008 for settings. It's better to be a touch loose than it is a touch light. Spec is .009-.011 for exhaust and .007-.009 for intake. Going right in the middle means if it's a touch tight on your feeler gauge you are closer to tight spec but not over, and if you are a touch loose on the gauge you are closer to loose spec but not past.

Also going in the exact order is important. There is a trick of doing intake at one point and exhaust at another but if you don't know the otto cycle inside and out it's just best to follow the FSM and do each cylinder separately.

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

As I was reading the original post I was thinking exactly this:

4 stroke engine hits TDC twice, once in between the exhaust and intake stroke and once with all valves fully closed in between the compression and power stroke. If you had it adjusted in between the exhaust/intake stroke you may have adjusted said valves partially open (either side). When I adjust my valves, I take a more common sense approach. I rotate the crank until I can see that one set of intake or exhaust valves are completely open at it's fullest point and adjust the remaining 3 sets of valves. That way it's impossible for the remaining 3 sets to be open at all. If you want to be a bit more critical, you can do the same but count over 2 cylinders per firing order and adjust those valves only since they'll be 180deg out (repeat until done).

Mikebdelsol93

I'm pretty certain I was at tdc on each cylinder. I Lined up the single mark on the pulley with the little gunsights as well as removed the plugs and put screwdriver on top of Pistons so I could see when at tdc on each cylinder. Rotated counter clock wise 180 between each cylinder. I seriously checked over everything and took my sweet time. It seemed to go smooth until I crank her up.

I did each cylinder separately 1-3-4-2

I may try resetting the ecu and try checking timing. But like I said it was running great before messing with valves other than slight tick..so I don't know.

Thanks for the replies!!!

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

Rotated 180deg in reference to which pulley? I'm pretty sure you did the right one but just being thorough.


Maybe you made them a little too tight? My last check is to wiggle each arm to see if there's the tiniest bit of play and an audible noise. If it can't wiggle a tad, then maybe it's tightened down too much. It happens, worth double checking each one.

Mikebdelsol93

Rotated the crank pulley 180deg.
I did put them in the tighter end of the specs at ex .009 and int .007. With drag on feeler gauge. I guess I could try going at the loser end of spec at .011 and .009

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

DELETED

Mikebdelsol93

WhaaaaT? I thought you rotate the crank pulley 180.

K now im confused

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

Disregard my last post, you did it right.

Following that procedure then, starting at TDC for #1 you did #1 intake valves, turned the crank 180deg then did #3, turned another 180deg then did #4, turned the last 180deg and finished with the #2 intake valves, is that correct?

Mikebdelsol93

thought we were getting somewhere lol

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

Hahaha my fault. Still worth doing the wiggle check to make sure they're not stuck open.

Mikebdelsol93

I did both intake and ex valves on each cylinder at a time but yes that's the order I did it.
I'm going to check them one last time in a few

TomCat39

The full explanation why is in my previous post.

TomCat39

I just got a good laugh at myself.

Either no one noticed or didn't have the heart to point out my misconception.

Finally looked up otto cycle and learned it is the heat cycle reference:


When I first saw the term otto cycle, I thought it was the fancy scientific name for the 4 cycles of a 4 cycle engine.

Pretty good laugh eh..

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

I caught it, just thought you were on an unnecessarily higher level LOL

4 stroke engine = ICPE

SUCK SQUISH BANG BLOW <- that's as fancy as it needs to be really

TomCat39

It would be a little nicer if this ricer could blame it on such but alas..... No such luck.

ICPE - Intake Compression ?? Exhaust

Cannot think of what P word stands for ignition or fire or bang or kaboom etc.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Intake
Compression
Power
Exhaust

TomCat39

That's a lot better then what kept coming to my mind, even though women sure do have Power because of it.

Jake644

iTrader: (1)

I just picked up this special too and it is very handy! on my b16 may help you out some

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Meh, or you can save your money and just use a closed end wrench and a flat head screwdriver