I don't know how. I'm somewhat mechanically inclinded (swapped trannies, clutches, etc) but just never done a valve job.

How do I do it, what tools do I need, and what specs do I adjust them to?

its on a H22A. Thanks.

 

hey i just did it last weekend with the help of my friend. this weekend i plan on advancing my timing and i searched on preludeonline and read over your post. great info there, thanks. i think i have an idea now. i need to find a few more tutorials and compare. =P

ok well before last weekend, i had NEVER worked on a car before. we did that, spark plug replacement, and cap and rotor. im pretty mechanically inclined by nature, so it wasnt a big thing. do your research before attempting it.

first, read over this once, then again, and maybe one more time. make sure you have a clear idea of what is being performed.
http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/v...lveadjust.html

now.. hopefully you have a helms. read that over a time or two as well. mine is in my car, so i dont know the specs. i think 0.006-0.007" for intake valves, and 0.007-0.008" for exhaust valves.

tools you will need are feeler gauges (with the measurements above), ratched/sockets, screwdriver, 10mm wrench. you can substitute the screwdriver/10mm with the tappet adjustment wrench. honda sells one and so does snapon. $50 and i heard its TONS easier with it. my friend and i performed it without it. i am cheap so instead i bought a 10mm wrench from napa. from the c-speed site, i got the idea to make a 90degree bend out of the full side with the help of the neighboring fire hydrant. almost broke the wrench. it cracked, but had enough power left to tighten the bolts enough (read on).

remove the valve cover. you will have a good view of the head. you should be able to see the bolts and screw on top of each valve. you have to understand how this works. but before touching any of these bolts, you need to make sure that the respective piston is at TDC. for this i used my helms. basically you need to turn the crank until the cam gear arrows point in the direction of the piston you are working on. i didnt have a torque wrench and i didnt want to mess with the crank pulley. we just put the car in gear and slowly pushed forward until the cam gear arrows lined up according to the helms. unlike on the c-speed site, i didnt remove the spark plugs to turn over the motor. now that i think of it, i probably wouldve done it because the site told me to, but i just forgot.

once the piston is lined up, you can work on the 4 valves for that cylinder. you may not even need to do an adjustment on each valve. thats what the feeler gauges are for. they are basically flimsy pieces of metal with specific widths. they are only used to check how much gap is between the valve and the cam lobe. refer to the c-speed site for diagrams on this. if you can fit the appropriate width feeler gauge through or if its too loose, you need to adjust that valve.

the screw and bolt on each valve is used to adjust it. again, make sure the piston is at TDC (the valve is completely closed). before you can turn the adjusting screw, you need to loosen the lock nut bolt. just barely loosen that bolt, and then you should be able to turn the screw. the screw determines how much gap there is between the valve and cam lobe. turn the screw and keep checking with the feeler gauge until you have some resistence with the gauge. when you are slightly scraping your way through between the cam and valve, that is when the width is correct. so for the intake valves, use the 0.007 gauge until you get some resistence. then you know that the gap is 0.007.

the tricky part comes now. because we didnt have the specialty tool, we had to redo valves numerous times. when you go to tighten the bolt, you have to make sure that the screw doesnt move. if the screw moves, then the valve will be off. so, while one person presses down with the screwdriver, the other needs to use the bent 10mm wrench to tighten the bolt. by doing it this way, you dont have too much force on the screw, and when tightening the bolt, you still move the screw a little. with the bent wrench, you really dont have much force on the bolt either. so we had to use the ratchet and socket to tighten the bolt fully after it was tightened as much as we could with the bent wrench. so the screw did move a few times. try to notice the direction of the screw and use that as a guide to see if it moved. be sure to recheck with the feeler gauge after you tighten the bolt. if it moved (and it will), you need to do it again. if it continues to move, try to compensate by making the valve a little loose, so when you tighten it it will go to the correct position. when you dont have the $50 tool, these are the quirks you have to do. =P

do that for each of the 4 valves on that cylinder. then remove the ebrake, and push the car forward again until the cam gears line up for the respective cylinder (or use the crank pulley and a long ratchet to turn over the engine). then the motor will be at TDC for another piston, and you can work on those valves.

when replacing the valve cover, you may need a new rubber gasket. i got one just for kicks. $12 from honda.

oh yea, use a torque wrench on the valve cover bolts. i didnt have one, so i just kept tightening it. they never got hard, so i just kept tightening them. well one in the middle, i kept tightening and it just snapped. so i have a stud sticking out and part of the screw inside the bolt in my center console compartment. =\

its late and i probably forgot things. this was a long post. dont just take my info as the final word. look up some other posts and try to have a firm grip on what the procedure is so you are not overwhelmed when you attempt it.




[Modified by illusion, 12:16 AM 2/16/2002]

 

jesus. maybe i gave too much information. or maybe i was just over zealous because of the lack of explanations that i got before i did it. im a newbie so i tried to explain it in newbie fashion. heh.

 

I'm kinda nervous about doing it - especially because the tool is more then 1/2 the price of just getting it done.... **** it I'll just take it somewhere I guess

 

heh yeah that was one of my concerns as well. i used a ghetto home made tool. i dunno, it was fun for me.

 

hmm... what is so special about hondas tool that lets you tighten them without moving the screw?

 

i dont know for sure. i dont have that tool.

if you look in this picture, i used the left end of the wrench. the full circle part. with this, the screwdriver goes right through the hole for access to holding the screw still while tightening the bolt. http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/v...s/dsc00003.jpg

heres a link to the snap on tool. http://buy.snapon.com/catalog/search...e=snapon-store


[Modified by illusion, 1:11 AM 2/16/2002]

 

Illusion, that was a very good explanation.
Do you really want a dealership monkey banging on your car? Also, once you buy the tools all of your valve adjustments will be free for life. Do it yourself.

 

for real, gonna pass up free valve jobs for life?.....I always gotta agree with laughin


[Modified by DJOwenXC, 1:44 AM 2/16/2002]

 

I hear that you can adjust valves to a certain degree to where you can gain horsepower.. anybody have any info about this? You can deviate just a tad bit from the stock specs to gain a bit of extra power.. but I don't know the specifics.

Jay

 

yeah I heard the same thing - you go with a little more gap, and you increase your lift... but if you go too far, you loose compression...

anyone tried this?