Short summary, 1992 Accord LX at 361,000 miles. My last valve adjustment was done by a shop 110,000 miles ago. I figured it was past time so I pulled the cover to check and both exhaust and intake were a gauge tighter than spec. I left it, thinking valves get loose over time and if they were still tighter than spec and it had not caused a problem in 100,000 miles, better to leave well enough alone. I came across a post on another site that proclaimed some Honda valves get tighter over time. This was news to me so now I am wondering if I should pull the cover and back things off a couple hundredths. Insight from those that know these engines top to bottom would be very appreciated.

 

yes, fix it.
loose is noisy, tight burns valves.

in general i would have to say i've seen the intakes loosen and the exhausts tighten, but you can't really say for sure at all.

 

Thanks! Weekend project it is.

 

So what if it sounds like a singer sewing machine, in this case loose is better.
I personally haven't witnessed this (ever), they've always gone looser.

If a condition existed which would stretch the valve stem or hammered the valve seat THEN it might be possible, but that would be very extreme and would have been quite apparent.

Adjust them to the loose side and you should be ok

P

 

It is possible the shop wayyyyy over did it and they have loosened but are still under spec. Some searching has revealed that the hammering of the valve seat is fairly common on the sport bikes, resulting in tighter specs over time. Likely due to the higher RPMs? I will be getting in there today to loosen things up as I hate to lose this engine after all this time to something simple. Good opportunity to learn something new. Thanks for the replies.

 

Let us know how it turns out.

P