So I notice my motor had a small "click-click-click" sounds near cylinder number one so I read the HELMs manual to adjust valve lash clearance.

The motor sat overnight because I knew it had to be cold first. I made sure to rotate the crank to TDC for each piston and loosen the locknuts and turn the adjusting screws til the feeler gauges slid back and forth with a slight drag. All the intake rocker arms were .005 in and all exhaust at .007 in.

Basically, I did everything by the book but when I turned the car on, it was louder than usual and made even more clicking/ticking noises.

I turned it off immediately to avoid any damages. I did research and thought it was a lack of oil, so re-did everything again but this time I spilled oil on each rocker arms but still abnormally loud.

I researched online and many said loose adjustments would make it rattle/bog/tick much more so basically following the HELMs specifications didn't help as it just enlarged the clearance, causing all the rocker arms to be loose...making me think my rocker arms are loose?

So the third time I did valve adjustments, I didn't use the book at all and turn the adjusting screws by thread count (I based it off old LS rocker arms laying around) with the intake at barely one or no threads and the exhaust at one or one & a quarter thread count. I turned the motor on and now it's quieter but still has a clicking so I'm assuming 2-3 rocker arms are still loose. The funny and odd thing is that the car drove stronger and vibrated much less. Even gas mileage seems a tad bit better. I drove for a good hour and seems okay.

Any suggestions on how to have proper valve clearance? I'm gonna re-do everything again tomorrow to stop the clicking/ticking noises. I simply just want to have a healthy motor for daily driving.

 

LS motor Im guessing since you said something about old LS rockers. The LS is harder to adjust than the GSR because the rockers tend to "tilt" when you try to adjust them...unlike the Vtec motors that are on a shaft. You need to put a feeler gauge in there, turn it until it is tight and then lock the nut. You need to make sure the adjustment screw doesnt move when you tighten down the nut though. Try it again and try to make sure the rocker arm is as flat as possible and go from there....or take it to a shop.

 

On a side note, you will never get rid of all the ticking....there are bearing in the distributor that make noise, along with noise from the water pump, timing belt tensioner, etc etc....so some ticking is pretty normal.

 

Thanks for the input.

Oh yeah, my bad. I have a 1999 LS B18B1 motor.

And that makes sense, the rockers do move around but when I was adjusting them, I would slide a feeler in, and slowly turn the lock nut until I couldn't slide a feeler no more. Still no help though. And yes I made sure the locknut was hand tight.

As for the noise, I'm just annoyed by it because I know there is still at least one or two rocker arms still loose. Funny thing is, I did a compression test and my numbers actually went up from before. Before the adjustment, the compression was 120-150-145-170. After the adjustment, the compression is now 150-170-175-180 so from the numbers, it seems healthier now but kinda odd.

 

i had a tick on mine, but after an examination...turned out to be my fuel injector#1. been doing it for a while and still doing it. doesnt affect anything.

stick screwdriver to where you think the noise is coming from and stick your ear at the handle end and you'll hear exactly where its coming from.

 

I use the feeler gauges as go and no go. Use the smaller blade to set the clearance then check to make sure the smaller blade goes in with drag and the next larger size does not go in at all. It's a good way to double check to make sure the clearance is inside of a tolerance window.

 

What kind of feeler gauges are you using? Angled? Long or short?

I used short angled feeler gauges in the beginning of my Honda days, but found long straight gauges to be easier to work with. I doubt your rocker arms are that worn out to the point where you couldn't adjust them into tolerance. Maybe have someone else double check your gaps just to be sure?

 

Yeah I did that too but like the previous member said that LS is trickier to adjust since the rocker arms have a tendency to move. As for the method you suggested, I made sure the smaller feelers slid back and forth smoothly while the large ones wouldn't go in at all.

I believe they're angled because it'll go straight then curve about 45 degrees...

So I stopped following the book and just adjusted by thread counts to be similar to a old set of LS rocker arms in the garage. Then I'll do a compression test, adjust the valves with the lowest psi cylinder and now I'm sitting at 150psi-170psi-165-180psi.

The numbers are obviously off on cylinder one but that's the highest compression I ever gotten for the cylinder considering that one always had the lowest. As for the other three, seems fairly healthy as far as the numbers goes...

I'm content because it's not ticking loudly now but not satisfied because I would like it to be at HELMs specs, at least I'll know it's at proper clearance.

 

I have the same problem. Here's my thread https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/very-loud-valve-train-2947006/

can you tell me what exact specs your valve are? Better mpg? Tell me!