I had my valve adjusted today by the top Honda tech... Well he did it for me at my buddy's place. Suppose to be the head guy at honda dealer.

anyway he did the valve adjustment in less than 30 minutes.. very fast. i watched him do it and he went through each valve and adjusted it. But after i started the car up and everything, i felt no differences. I remember people saying that the car drove smoother.... or they would noticed a difference.. but oh well.... just curious... he didn't use a torque wrench or anything.. im guessing he is really skilled. lol.

but i spent $50 labor + $17 parts. *yeah i saved over $20 on the gasket. Orig price was like $40 something. hehe

Honda wanted $152

 

What I noticed was a smoother idle, nothing power related.

 

Did he re-torque the crankshaft pully bolt with the harmonic damper pully holding tool and torque wrench? I realize that this bolt is on tight as hell from the factory, but I think it would be standard procedure to check the torque on this bolt.

No offense, but you don't want to guess at skill with this car although I am sure your friend is very competent.

 

What were your valve clearances before and after the adjustment?

Without knowing these values, it is not possible to give an answer. IMO, increased smoothness results from setting the valve clearances to a specific value, not just within the specification range. For example, I set all of my intake valves to 0.008" even though the allowable range is 0.008 - 0.010". Also, two of my intake valve were slightly out of specification at 0.011" and they ranged from 0.008 to 0.011" before adjustment.

I'm not saying he did this, but if the tech simply adjusted to within specification without going through the tedious step of setting them all the same, that may explain why you didn't notice a change in smoothness.

 

The crank pulley is put on at the factory using the same 181 ft/lbs that is used whenever the pulley is changed. It can take up to 500 ft/lbs to undo this bolt. This is not from overtightening. It is from metal to metal adhesion between the bolt and its surrounding materials. It just takes that much force to break that adhesion. Unless it is too loose, there is no point in messing with this bolt. It'll just adhere again and take just as much force to remove the next time.

 

If he only spent 30 minutes on the job, then he could not have adjusted them to the level of acuracy that it takes to "notice a difference". As Coraldoc mentioned, I think he just put them all within spec. Honestly, I think you wasted your money, and probably have more to worry about now than you did before. If he didn't use a torque wrench, then you may have reason to lay awake at night worrying about a nut coming loose one day and grenading your engine. Keep in mind that the lock nut travels up and down 75 times per second at redline. Did he at least recheck the clearance on each valve after tightening the lock nut back down?

BTW, I have adjusted my valves 4 times without having to use any new gaskets.

 

How do ya know if it is to loose unless you check it using proper tools?

 

At 9,000 rpm, the piston travels up and down 150 times per second. The intake valve opens one time for every four times the piston travels up and down, (hence 4 stroke) therefore, the locknut should move up and down 37.5 times per second.

 

I don't think so. The crank will turn twice for each turn of the cams, so at 9K RPMs, the cams are turning at 4.5K RPMs (75 RPS).

 

You really won't notice a difference unless your valves were well out of tolerances.
I had mine adjusted when I had my retainers inspected and it took my mechanic about 75 minutes to pull the cams, do the inspection, then reinstall the cams and adjust my valves. If your mechanic is good, he or she can do it quickly and accurately. My mechanic is damn good - I know how to adjust valves but wanted to watch him do it before I started adjusting my valves myself. He just worked methodically and non-stop.
Nevertheless, while there were 7 valves out of spec on my car - I didn't notice a difference. BTW - you got a good deal on the adjustment.