Valve Adjustment Help

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

HatchSpeeD

...Hi...
Ok, so today I decided to replace the 3 valve cover studs/caps I snapped off and while I had the valve cover off I noticed something disturbing. 10 of the 16 Valve adjustment nuts are like hand loose. It sounded like I needed a valve adjustment but DAMN. I'm scared to drive my car now. So I picked up some feeler gauges and basically looked around for a shop manual but every place was sold out. I still don't have a helms and want to make sure i'm doing this right.

On a LS, where do put the feeler gauge between? Is it between the top retainer and the valve adjustment screw? Or is it somewhere between the cam lobe and something else? Also, which feeler gauges should I use or whatever. I read somewhere for an LS the intake should between 0.003"-0.005" and exhaust 0.006"-0.008". I'm going to try and do this in the morning.
 
Yeah you want to fit a .006 Inch feeler gauge for the intake side and .008 inch on the exhaust side. When you go to adjust your valves, makes sure the piston you are adjusting is completely closed and insert the feeler gauge between the adjusting screw and the top of the valve/retainer.
 
see I read somewhere that .006 & .008 is for GSR and the other one i said earlier is for LS. Anyone confirm or deny this?
 
Bump for the late night crew. Want to try and take care of this in the morning.
 
I'm still confused whether to put the feeler gauge between top retainer and lock nut, or cam lobe & rocker arm? C-speedracing.com has a write up on a gsr but says to put it between the lifter and cam lobe, and other people say lock nut & retainer. Can anyone help me please i'm trying to get this done.
 
B series according to Helms it's the cam and the rocker. Start with No. 1 at TDC, . Loosen locknut, turn adjusting screw until you can feel a slight drag on the feeler when you move it inbetween, tighten it and recheck clearance. Rotate crank 180 degrees counterclockwise (cam shaft pulley will turn 90 degrees) with the up mark facing the exhaust side. Adjust valves on No. 3 cylinder, rotate crankshaft counterclockwise 180 again and now the up marks are facing down, this is for No. 4 cylinder rotate crankshaft again now, up marks are to the firewall, adjust No. 2 cylinder.
 
Originally posted by 92b16vx@Jul 2 2005, 12:17 PM
B series according to Helms it's the cam and the rocker. Start with No. 1 at TDC, . Loosen locknut, turn adjusting screw until you can feel a slight drag on the feeler when you move it inbetween, tighten it and recheck clearance. Rotate crank 180 degrees counterclockwise (cam shaft pulley will turn 90 degrees) with the up mark facing the exhaust side. Adjust valves on No. 3 cylinder, rotate crankshaft counterclockwise 180 again and now the up marks are facing down, this is for No. 4 cylinder rotate crankshaft again now, up marks are to the firewall, adjust No. 2 cylinder.
[post=519686]Quoted post[/post]​



On the B18B the valve clearances should be;
.004 for the intake (.003-.005)
.007 for the exhaust (.006-.008)
(these are cold measurements of course, and taken straight from the factory service manual). The manual also says to adjust the intake before you adjust the exaust, but I dont see why this would matter.

I just did my valves according to these measurements and the above procedure... runs like a champ, no ticks at all. Just make sure you tighten the locknuts back down real well, and double check the clearances once you tighten the locknuts to make sure you haven't moved the adjuster screw at all (it helps to hold the screw with a screw driver while you do this). It also helps tremendously if you pull the sparkplugs before you get to turnin on the crank, it will remove any compression you have to overcome and make the whole procedure less work. Just be sure not to let any foreign materials down in there while your at it.
 
DAMN IT!!! I'm in trouble! I was almost done...I was on my last cylinder number 2...tightnening up the nut on the exhaust valve when all of a sudden the damn rocker arm comes off! The whole rocker arm came off and I don't know how to put the ball back in the keeper (i guess you call it) and squeeze the rocker arm back underneather the camshaft lobe. ANYONE HELP ME?!?! Do I have to take off the camshaft or move the crank pulley to move the camshaft to squeeze it under?
 
DONT PANIC! Get a screw driver (flathead) and wrap it in something that wont scratch your cam (or come apart in your head like papertowel), I used a rubber tipped screwdriver I had, then using a bit of leverage compress the valve down into the combustion chamber... it helps to have two people, but I did it by myself. Once you've compressed the valve a little, the rocker are will slide right back in.
 
Ok, what I was trying to do prior to you post is compress the valve down by prying a flat head against the retainer I think its called, but could not get it yet because the little pointy thing in the middle of the retainer doesn't move, just the retainer which compresses the spring. Where are you saying to compress the valve, via the camshaft?
 
Yea same shit happened to me man... superman that rocker arm and it will pop out. Try to compress the valvespring as mentioned above and it will go back in.
 
Thx for the help people. I was about to squeeze the rocker arm underneather again. I'm hoping I didn't adjust one of the valves too tight cuz I was hearing a noise at a certain RPM, like a rocker arm & cam lobe resistance kinda noise. Can't explain it. Always something...oh well thanks for the help.
 
I had to readjust mine after about a thousand miles the first time through... but they've held solid since then (5K+).
 
I'm gonna get back in there probably next weekend. The vc stud that holds the ground stripped. All of my old studs are breaking/stripping. Anyway I gotta replace that and a cam cap bolt. Might as well check the valve lash again while i got the cover off and see if i can get rid of the noise. She runs better though.
 
Back
Top