Ive done tons of valve adjustments on my B series motors, do i still slide the feller guage between the cam lobes and rocker arms, or am i sliding tbe feelr between the lock nut?

 

Between the adjustment screw and valve retainer

 

Actually, it's between the adjustment screw and the valve stem, just above the retainer. This is found on the other side of the cam follower from where the lock nut is located.

 

What they said

PIC that I had from back in the day, for clarification

 

thanx guys ill be doing it shortly an dloks alot easier than doing the old b series motors

 

well as I went to adjust my valves i noticed that i can tap the intake valves at least 1/16 th of an inch (up down). All 8 intake valves but cant do that on the exhaust side. Now I dont know how possible it would be that I bent some valves, ive never over revved the motor, but i did buy this car 2 months ago used with 24,000 miles. The idle doesnt stumple and does drive fine. Im just curious to know that this is normal? I will do a comopression check later on, what is the ideal compresion psi for this motor, 240 or higher?

 

You can only adjust valves on one cylinder at a time! Look at the cam lobes - when both the intake and exhaust cam lobes are angled upward and outward from the centerline of the engine by about 45 degrees, the valves can be adjusted. You must then move the engine before adjusting the valves on the other cylinders. The procedure is listed in the FAQ (I think). So have a look and make sure the cylinder you are working on is at (or very near to) top dead center.

Do this and then let us know if the exhaust valves are too tight. Also, note that it is difficult to access the exhaust valve gap unless you remove the fuel rail cover and use a feeler guage with angled blades.

Ideal compression is about 225 psi with the throttle wide open at 250 RPM. Of greater importance than the value is the evenness across cylinders. There should be no more than 28 psi difference between any two cylinders, though less variance is certainly better.

 

I was told by my mechanic that the F20C motor has self adjusting values and it doesn't need to be adjusted, or something similar. Is that true, or was he pulling my leg?

 

i know i can only do one cylinder at a time in order of 1, 3, 4, 2 at tdc for each cylinder

 

Your mechanic is wrong. The valves in the F20C are not self-adjusting. However, according to the service manual, the valves do not need to be adjusted until 105k miles.
OK, since you were measuring valve clearances correctly, the exhaust valves are seriously out of specification! Were the valves ever adjusted before? A valve that is about to drop tends to have looser than normal gap.