arctic_blue83

Today I adjusted the valves on my 2007 S2000 with 29k miles on the clock. I have no idea if the previous owner(s) ever performed a valve adjustment, but based on the condition of the PCV hoses, I would assume the valve cover has never been removed. I just bought the car a couple months ago and figured I would adjust them as preventative maintenance after finding this thread. The car is bone stock.

For reference, none of my exhaust valves were too tight- all were within spec. A couple of my intake valves were ever so slightly loose (~0.011"), but the rest were all within spec.

Just figured I would share.

jts09

I just finished a valve adjustment on my '06 with 49k miles. I saw this thread and decided it would be a good idea to check the clearances since I purchased the car last November and didn't know if the valves had been checked/adjusted. Along the way, I also did a compression check which looked fine. I only had to adjust one exhaust valve on cylinder #1 and both exhaust valves on cylinder #4. All three valves were slightly tight (~.008).

Everything went smoothly except the battery heat shield removal/install. Getting to the rear bolt is a bugger.

Chuck S

0.008 is very tight.

-- Chuck

cosmomiller

.008 is tight. Good thing you caught it or you might have ended up with torched valves in 15K miles.

Forget the battery heat shied removal. Leave it and get rubber wrists and fingers.

jts09

I think that if I had rubber wrists & fingers, I could get to the back heat shield bolt! I started the process with the heat shield in place, but found that it was difficult to get an accurate reading on the cylinder #4 exhaust valves with it in place. I decided it would be better to fight with the heat shield and get the valves clearances correct.

Thanks for the feedback. I've worked on a lot of motorcycle engines, but this is the first time I've gone inside a car engine. In the past, I've stuck to peripheral areas - ignition, thermostat, alternator, etc. I must have rotated through each cylinder 4 times to check my work.

maranelloboy05

Did my first valve adjustment today and I found my 07 to be a tad tight on the exhaust side, I could get a .009 in each so luckily it wasn't that bad. I'm about 90% sure the engine has never been opened up or the balance adjusted since new, I'm a bit over 80k miles now.

Billman250

2007, 10k miles, exhausts set to .011.

He is back with 60k miles.

All intakes are solid at .009.

Exhaust valves:
Cyl 1 .005 & .003.
Cyl 2 .005 & .001.
Cyl 3 .003 & .001.
Cyl 4 .004 & .001.
One spark plug has lost the platinum button from the outer electrode and is etching away due to the lean condition.

The reason the car showed no misfires is the consistency of the valve clearances.
I am setting them to .012, and dropping interval to 30k miles. This particular car is right down the road, so he will be back in 10-15k miles to see how things are doing. Time will tell if valves are burnt beyond re-polish.

The more the car is held in VTEC, such at track use, the more the issue comes to light.

Un-sticking the thread for a bit for awareness/discussion.

cosmomiller

Billman, how is it your own S has held steady on the on the valves and yet the DBW cars have valves that have clearances that migrate in much shorter periods of time?

Guess after 20K miles I need to pop the cover again!

Billman250

My car is a 2003.

This problem is exclusive to 2006-2009 cars. I attribute to a leaner mixture.

The rate at which the valves burn accelerates with each .001. In other words, The rate at which they burn from .008 to .007 is faster than the rate from .009 to .008.

Once they hit .007, the rate picks up exponentially.

Going to .012 can add a great deal of time to the interval.

MercGuy

I've tried to read all of this thread, so I apologize if this has been covered.

I have an 01 AP1 with 30K miles on it. I'm the 2nd owner and I doubt that a valve adjustment has ever been done.

I really dread doing this, not because of the work, but because everything is perfect and new(ish). The car runs perfect and there are no oil leaks anywhere, I want to keep it that way.

So, my questions are:

1) Do I need to check my clearances even though I don't have a DBW car ?
2) Assuming that I should do the adjustment, do you recommend buying an entire new set of valve cover gaskets, or can I reuse what's on there, even though its 16 years old...

Thanks so much !!