So, I have a 92 integra DA with a B18A1. I run a tuned ECU because my original took a crap, and I have an active forced air intake.

The Rev limiter is set to 7200 RPM. Red line on the dash is at 6800, and I think the stock limit was at 7K.

I went for a short cruise, got a little road rage, and bounced off the limiter. I've done it before, however this time it finally (at 280,000 miles, all original parts) caused a problem.

Had a tick in the engine, but it still ran and drove fine. I literally drove it 2 miles and parked it. I found the bad lifter almost instantly.
So, do I need to purchase a new lifter? Would a used lifter be OK? I haven't torn into it, so I physically don't know what it consists of. You'll have to excuse my ignorance on the subject.

 

Update
so I decided to tear into my engine, and it appears as though I may not have needed to. I had to remove the belts, break the crank pulley loose, and remove the timing belt, intake cam gear and cam. I was simply reading how to remove the lifter, and it involved removing the cams. No big deal, I've done it before. Well after seeing the rocker simply lifts out, I realized I may have only had to adjust the lock nut. I'm really not sure what the reason was for the rocker adjusting itself. I'm partially concerned it may be an oil issue where I have a clogged oil port somewhere. So, should I just try to adjust the rocker and put it back together? Or am I better off pulling the lifter (also referred to as a "hydraulic tappet")? I suppose checking the lifter since I'm already in the engine, is the smart thing to do. ..

 

set your engine and cams back to TDC cylinder #1 and put your engine back together. Then check the clearances and do a valve adjustment if necessary.

 

Update 3
I put everything back together and adjusted the clearance. I decided to check all of them since I've had this engine for nearly 100,000 miles and never did it. Surprisingly, I had to turn nearly every one of them a full thread, if not 2. I double and triple checked just to be sure.

I'm assuming adjusting closer would leave the valve open longer, and further would be a shorter duration. I believe it was recommended .015mm to .019mm intake and .017mm to .021mm for the exhaust. It mentions your better a little loose than snug. Before adjusting, they were all nearly touching the cams.

I reused my spark plug seals, so I added some black silicone. Tomorrow after it cures, I'll start up the car and let you guys know how things went. If you zoom in to the ball part of the rocker, you'll see a groove caused from the screw turning while the car was running. Decided it wasn't significant enough to try to sand or grind it smooth.

 

Does it sound better?

 

I'll be starting it later tonight, since the silicone recommends 24 hours. I've already had enough problems with oil on the spark plugs. Fingers crossed I did the adjustments correctly, timing seemed good when I was rotating the crank.

 

Well, I started the car, fired up fine but things seems pretty noisy. I feel the valve adjustment was too much. As I said, I got a full turn if not 2 turns adjusting the rockers. I think I might need to re adjust to about half of what I set them at and see if it gets quieter again. I was surprised I had to adjust then as much as I did. I'm a little grumpy but remain positive at the moment.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ffCMaN_rNX8

 

Are you using feeler gauges?

 

Yes, but I think I read the feelers wrong. I'm realizing they had 2 measurements on them. I'm going to have to try again and see if I can get it right the second time around.

 

Looks like my mistake was reading the top number instead of the bottom. I feel so foolish!

 

Either shoot for the middle of the tolerances or the looser side of the tolerances. The valves tend to tighten up a little after the adjustment.

*Edit*

Holy cow, if you put it at .016" you're way out!! Good thing you are catching it now lol.

 

OK, so I found that I was reading the feeler gauge wrong. I had set the clearance to 0.016 inches, which was around 0.4 mm. That was just me not realizing there were 2 different measurements on the feeler gauge. I set the intake to 0.17mm and the exhaust to 0.2mm. Sounds great now! Almost silent! So, if you have a loud tick under the hood, it may just be your lifters have adjusted themselves over time! I'm beyond excited, and already took it for a short test drive. Runs great! :D.

 

I always shoot for .007 and .009in on the intake and exhaust, but mostly because they're easy numbers to remember and I like to err on the side of loose with things like that. Freaked me out when I dropped my ported head on my car because it's NOISY, but that's because that head has pretty aggressive cams and heavy valve springs so there's a lot of noise from the closing ramp.

 

Use .006 to .007 on the intakes and .007 to .008 on the exhaust.

For the intake valves .006 should go in easily, .007 should not. Same on the exhaust. .007 should go in easily, .008 should not.

The feelers in your photo are way to small.


.

 

I don't know what you mean by too small. The bottom number is mm. Not all feelers are shown in the pic, it was just for example. By combining the feelers I was able to get them within spec. No problem. I've already made the adjustments and things are great. No noise, no sputters.