I am not sure about this ... I want to do a valve adjustment as my car has 96K miles on it, and I imagine it was last done some time before I bought the car at 68K. I probably should have done it before now, but oh well.

Question is: can I open the valve cover and check the spec's of all the valves with the feeler gauge to see if any of them need adjusting, and if they are within spec leave the job for another day?

Would there be anything in-accurate about this measurement? Don't say: Just do it anyway because I would rather wait until a weekend when I have a little more time if at all possible.

 

If you have the valve cover off and a feeler guage in your hands, adjust the valves. The most time consuming part of the job is pulling the valve cover. By the way, valve adjustment specs are for a cold engine.

 

Well, if they are in spec, they don't need to be adjusted. If they are out of spec, fix them now. 90% of the work is already been done just getting to the spot where you can measure them.


[Modified by earl, 9:17 AM 11/2/2002]

 

But I don't remember taking off the valve cover being that difficult. You just unbolt it and lift/carefully pry it off ... ?

There are 16 valves lock nuts and all it looks like a lot of fiddling around to get them all adjusted ... that would take quite a bit of time I would think.

Any input?

Ok, thanks, I will pick up the tools and have a look.

I will do it cold too ...

 

I think the hardest thing is getting each piston at TDC for those particular valve adjusters. This is easy and it's the onl;y thing that will let you check the gap. I've seen too many people just reef on the aduster screws for no reason(thinking it will raise their compression).

 

Emerica is right, and also if they feel tight, it might just be the oil. Run it back and forth a few times and wipe the oil off, otherwise the oil can make it feel like they are too tight, then you loosen them, and then they are too loose. Then you just get frustrated.

 

a word for a fellow h-t member, set a day aside. don't rush, and be the dumbass i am, and tighten them down on the wrong sequence and torque specs.

 

http://www.bseries.net/

The have a how to on valve adjustments under the maintenance section.

 

I know how to do it ... I actually tried it on a friends for a couple of valves ... but I am a novice at the mechanic game, so I wasn't sure if I could test them out to see if they needed doing, or if that would not be accurate. So far I started with oil changes, then worked my way up to spark plugs and intake install. A month ago I did the fuel filter, so this is next on the list.

To the guy with the tip about wiping off the oil ... that is a good tip, I hadn't thought of that.

I also have a Helms manual. I went and got the tools today, so I will do it next weekend.

To the guy that did it to the wrong specs ... what was the outcome?

 

Ok thanks for the support guys, I did it this morning. I had my wife help out and measure the clearances with I loosened the bolt and tightened the screw.

We checked all of them. A couple of them needed doing BAD.

I borrowed the tool from a guy I know because I am a cheap bastard and I didn't want to shell out the $40.00 myself.

I would also like to state for the record that I am complete idiot and totally incompetant when it comes to cars, so if I could do this then I think anyone on this board thinking of doing it themselves could.