nibble

Once you remove all hoses and screws, it will just come right off. Taking Valve cover is easier it looks.

Car Analogy

The gasket can usually be reused. My cover required a bit of force to come off. I didn't want to pry it and damage gasket surfaces. I didn't want to rubber mallet the cover, and mess up the wrinkle paint. But in the end it wasn't that bad to get it off. Once I got it started, ot came right off. It was a habit bond of the rubber gasket.

Slowcrash_101

Am I the only one that has no idea how the valve cover comes off or goes on? Not that I can't do it, I've done it plenty of times, but I don't know what happens, I just kind of fumble around with it, pulling and pushing and eventually it comes out, I don't even need to take off the cam sensors to take it off or put it on. It's some kind of black magic ju-ju, it's almost like the right technique is willpower rather than simply moving things out of the way.

Slowcrash_101

Use a couple folded rags, one is not enough, then you can use the rubber mallet. The gasket should be replaced if older than 36,000 miles or 3 years, especially if you haven't removed it in all that time.

rpg51

My car is an 02 and the cover has never been off. I guess I'll order a gasket. It is part of the process of setting a baseline which is the main reason I am adjusting the valves. I've decided to do it myself. I ordered a valve adjustment tool and a set of good bent feeler gauges in the sizes I'll need to do a "go no go" approach. I think it will be fun to get into an engine again. Its been about 35 years or more. I like the idea of really knowing my car intimately. If you have someone else working on it there is a feeling that you are at the mercy of someone else and you really have no clue how the darn thing is working. Cars are living beings after all, right?

rpg51

How much time do you all guess I should set aside to adjust valves and replace plugs from beginning, (put on jack stands to help my very old back)), to end, (off jack stands and driving)? I will be replacing the gasket. It will be my first time inside this particular engine so add some time for that! Also, its been a long time since I last worked with feelers so I'll probably end up running through them all twice to be sure I have been consistent.

Slowcrash_101

If you're doing it for the first time, set aside a few hours, it's good to take your time and be methodical. Do the exhaust on cylinder 1 first, that way you get a good feel for the process. By far the easiest one to do and will give you a rough idea of what lies ahead. The best way to describe what you're feeling for with the gauge is a small amount of drag, like rubbing your finger over something kind of drag. The trickiest part comes in placing the feeler gague flat between the tip and the adjustment screw, if it's not flat you'll get a wrong reading so once you slip in the feeler gauge slide it around, the loosest feeling on the feeler gauge is what you're adjsuting towards. Once you do the first one, move the rocker arm up and down, do it enough and you can get a feel for how loose/tight they need to be. That way if you second guess yourself doing a hard cylinder like #4 you can wiggle the rocker arm to give yourself a second set of eyes.

This car is interesting, do you play contortioninst with the heat shield, or do you remove it? While removing it you have to deal with the fact that it's very annoying to remove. So it's better to work around it in the long run. You can bend it a little bit, but don't let it rub up against the heater valve.

Car Analogy

I find the heat shield easy to remove using a ratcheting box wrench. Since its slotted and you only have to loosen the bolts its not so bad.

For the feeler gauges, as SlowCrash mentions, you need to get the feeler gauge on the same plane as the gap you are measuring, otherwise you add drag from trying to slide it at an angle.

Tip: make sure any valve you are about to adjust has its cam lobe pointing up, away from the valve. If not, you messed up on the alignment marks and amount of turns. In fact, you can ignore the timing marks altogether, and just turn engine so cam lobe is pointing up and adjust that valve. I find this faster and easier.

rpg51

Thanks. I've done this on other cars in the distant past so I suspect it will be fine. I need to do it on a day when I can get started early and have the whole day if I need it.

Chibo

Is it normal for the car to idle more quietly (less ticking) after the valve adjust? I did AP2 keepers/retainers at the same time. I set intake at .008 and exhaust at .010 on a cold motor. I don't know what the clearances were before as I was trying to work through the keepers quickly. I followed the order in the official Honda manual. TDC cyl 1, check all cyl 1 clearances, rotate 180* (90* at cam) for cyl 3, cyl 4, cyl 2.


Unrelated to thread, but I found a good rhythm for keepers using the hacked up valve spring compressor everyone uses: cover everything up, pressurize a cylinder, take a 19mm socket and hold it on the valve retainer, hit it somewhat lightly a few times with a hammer - causes the spring to compress and eject the keepers, put my new retainer on the valve spring, hold the keepers inside the retainer with some grease, compress the retainer/spring at the workbench, carry it over, slide it over the valve, make sure the keepers didn't come out, decompress spring. Next.