alright so I was replacing my headgasket on my b18b -I snapped a bolt off on one of the cam journals, we were unable to remove it so I picked up a b20 head for cheap from a friend of mine.

I used my b18 valve lifters and cams in the head.

Installed everything - started the car, drove it around the block, pulled hard and strong - no loss of power - but noticed a lot of clicking and I would idle very low and stall every once and a while

so I bring it back to the house let it sit overnight to cool down - pulled the valve cover off to check valve clearances, realize my valves were all out of wack. so now I do a valve adjustment, drove the car.

Im still getting a clicking noise it is almost nothing compared to what it was but its still there, still sounds to be coming from the valves, I am going to recheck my valve clearances again in the next couple days, when I get a day off, but Im still getting a low idle (also have replaced the IACV) any ideas? could I just need to tweak the valves a little more (maybe my adjustment was a little off ...) or is there anything else you can think of that would click and increase with engine speed ... thanks ahead of time

 

only thing i can think of that since it happened only after swapping the head over, is a bent valve. i mean u already did the valve lash adjustment, i hope you did this for a b20 and not the specs of the b18b head. im not sure if they are the same or not. are you burning any oil?

take a screw driver and put it over the valve cover so the driver end is touching the valve cover, then put ur ear on the other end and do it to each position of the cylinders. and then do it to right above the exhaust ports and intake side and see if you hear a ticking from there.. you may hear slight ticking from valve cover due to the rocker arms hitting the valves to open them, and when u do the intake side ports u probably will hear the injectors. so try listen for something that is out of the ordinary.

 

Factory spec for the B18B and B20B/Z is:
Intake: 0.003"-0.005"
Exhaust: 0.006"-0.008"


thats from c-speedracing.com - so thats what I followed ... wouldnt the car run like complete **** with a bent valve though?

 

update - I blew a hole in the coolant hose that runs from the head to the firewall on the way home ... wtf? is it related to my clicking? I am starting to just call it quits heh

 

most likely its one of your lost motion assy. it may be cracked or just dry of oil. you'll have to remove the cams to check but, random clicking noise that doesnt go away after adjusting valve lash is almost always the lma's...from my experience

 

its a nonvtec head, no lma's...


have you done a leakdown test? if you bent a valve it should show by either blowing air out of the throttle body or the exhaust in the bad cylinders..


also, are you running aftermarket injectors?? they can get pretty loud and could possibly be confused for loud valves...good luck!

 

yeah non-vtec so no lma's - stock injectors - I think I just need to double check valve lash again, which I wont get to do until monday night - before I installed the head all the valves seemed to be ok - but I will do a compression/leak down test as well to check