I recently took my 96 Si w/140k miles to my local mechanic for a valve clearance adjustment. Its been ticking pretty loudly most recently, and i was overdue for service. When i went to pick up my car, he told me that my "lifters" needed probably needed replacement but its usually a $1500-1600 deal and its not really that important right now. He also said he adjusted my valves slightly below spec b/c of this (i think he said 1/1000 of a mm or maybe meter?). He tried to explain to me what it all meant, but im basically a noob when it comes to opening up the engine.

Can anybody explain to me what this means?

 

Well he is a dumbass.

H23s do not have lifters nor anything that resembles a lifter. Maybe he means rocker arms, but I wouldn't bother changing those, they're hella expensive and as long as you have a smooth surface, even if its worn, with a good valve adjustment, it will run fine.

on a side note, VTEC engines like the h22 use things called Lost Motion Assemblies in the vtec system, and they are a sort of lifter.

 

what part of the rockers was SUPPOSEDLY bad?

 

he told me "LIFTER".

regardless, he told me not to worry about it too much...Its not like he wanted to fix it for me and charge me the $1500 bucks. I'm assuming he was using the wrong term for it now. i was just looking for some clarity on the issue.

I should go back and talk to him again

 

well actually maybe this will help.

he told me that he underspec'ed my valve clearances b/c if he had put them back to spec they would be off in 3-4 months. This way it will stay within reasonable tolerance for a while longer.

any guesses what he was talking about?

 

He was speaking out of his ***, or he's just so dumb he thinks that BS is right.

He is ASSuming that your cams are going to wear into the rockers that fast, which is odd as hell.

You should never underspec valve lash, when that thing gets hot it could get to the point where its holding the valve open during the compression or combustion stroke and that would make the thing run like ****.

 

heres the write-up from the FAQ about DIY valve adjustment

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=618786

 

1500-1600 maybe for a whole new motor. He's a tool, (no offence to him or his company) but i'd take your car else where. Maybe he's looking at the accord v6 manual or something. They have hydraulic "lifters", but preludes are just springs.

Next time have your valves adjusted to spec, not below spec. If he can't get it to spec he doesn't know how to use his feeler guage, or is lazy. Even if he has to go through the entire rotation twice, he should try to get them back to spec, because thats where your car will be running at peak efficiency.

Like bluelude said, valve adjustments can be a DIY'er and takes only about an hour even for a first time'er.

Just buy a good set of feeler guages, (i'd get metric and imperial)(easy way to be very accurate), and take your time.

 

Hmm..thanks for the advice guys. i may have to try the valve adjustment with some buddies when ive got a free weekend.