I think I've finally pinpointed the misfiring problem when hot problem on my B18C5 motor to overly tight valves. Yesterday I checked the valves and my valves were indeed too tight on the exhaust side and I made the necessary adjustments to my car and after putting things back together the car now finally seems to run right without a hitch no matter how hot the temps outside get.

The issue I have now after the valve adjustment is a REALLY noisy valvetrain. The spec I used is .20mm exhaust and .18mm intake. The noise is so rattly and clicky that I am probably going to crack the top of the motor open again to inspect the valves again to make sure that everything is adjusted properly. There is one thing that I need to ask about adjusting valves on this engine. Using the feeler gauge I measure the clearances by jamming the feeler gauge through the center of the block towards either the intake manifold or the exhaust manifold correct? I've seen some techs adjust valves esp the exhaust valves from the valves in towards the camshaft. I tried this technique before and have found that by measuring from the exhaust side going into towards the cam yields a more loose feel whereas when I jam the feeler gauge in from the center of the head towards for example the exhaust valves the clearances feel tighter.

What side should I be probing the feeler gauge in from? Judging by my service manual it would appear to be from the camshaft towards the valves.

Can someone here please clarify how I can make my valvetrain quieter and getting the proper clearances?

Thanks

 

i always measure from the outsides (manifolds) INTO the center of the head...

 

^that's how i did mine

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jomama &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^that's how i did mine</TD></TR></TABLE>

same here.

 

measure from the "outside" towards the inside, and i always run mine on the "looser" side of the recommended clearances

 

Did you make the adjustments w/ the engine Hot or Cold?

I did not see mention of this.....

 

I did my adjustments with engine dead cold.

I even used a laser thermometer to measure the head temp for fun.... it registered 15C that day I did it.

I will be doing valves again today b/c I KNOW for a fact that they're too loose. My car now clicks like crazy but it idles and doesn't miss a beat anymore.

Could I do serious valve damage if my valves were too tight for too long or too loose for too long?

My tight exhaust valves pretty much cooked a set of factory plugs and permanently burnt the deposits onto the plugs. I tried using a dremel to clean the plugs to reuse them and the dremel had no effect!

I've driven the car about 300 kms on looser than normal valve tappets. Just not my luck right now with my car. Rush a job and I screw up...

 

The exhaust valves can be damaged if the clearance on that side is too tight.

 

did my valves tonight and good as new....

the question is now did I do any long term damage to my exhaust valves by running them too tight before...

it has been at least 3 years that my car has been running flaky but then again I only put like 5000kms on it per year so maybe not so bad...

 

If you burnt up an exhaust valve you'd notice it for sure. I'm sure you're fine.