-Matt

I recently had to change my head gasket this was successful.

But while i had the cam cover off i thought it best to check the valve clearance's.

I had the correct sized feeler gauge's for both intake and exhaust, but found they where so tight i couldn't get the feeler gauge's in at all.

So i adjusted them so that the feeler gauge fits with a little bit of resistance.


The car now does not feel as good as it was, it feels gutless at low revs and seems to take longer for the revs to raise, however once into Vtec it seems good.

I understand these cars are not meant to be fast at low revs, but it always used to have a decent poke.


So will i have made things worse by this adjustment? Is it safe to put them back to tighter than the spec?


Cheers for any advice on this?

Dead Serious

As the valve seat wears the valve will loose clearance. Imagine the valve punching the seat in the face a billion times. Eventually the valve will have no gap and you clould loose compression. So the condition you observed is what normal wear looks like and although the car will loose power if you increase the clearance to factoty specs you would have to be very connected with the car to notice. Reducing the clearance would make more power but it would shrink the service interval. Also keep in mind you do the valve adjustment on a cold engine and the factory specs are built around the changes that occur when the engine is hot.

Slowcrash_101

You must have done something wrong, a proper valve adjustment makes the engine better everywhere. My guess would be to recheck cylinder 4, that's the trickiest to do because it's cramped and hard to get a straight shot at the valves. Check the noise the rocker makes as you rock it back and forth and compare it to cylinder 1, which is the easiest to do.

Tighter than spec will eventually lead to burned valves, logic would dictate that intake valves are harder to burn than exhaust valves since you have gas and intake charge helping to cool them and exhaust valves don't.

99SH

Has the exhaust note changed?

Verify your cam & crank timing marks. When you reinstalled the chain, one of the cams may have moved a tooth.

Soviet

According to the OP I don't think the chain was ever removed.

99SH

He noted he replaced his headgasket. The chain has to come off to remove the timing gear.

Soviet

He noted he replaced his headgasket. The chain has to come off to remove the cams.
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I read that as valve cover gasket. My bad, you're right.

-Matt

Thanks Guys, i will have to remove the cam cover and re-check them.

Yes i had to remove the chain to do the head gasket. one note here, i forgot to put engine to TDC before taking it apart.

I made sure the first cylinder was at the very top, and just made sure that the 2 cam marks lined up??

I wasn't aware it mattered which rotational position the crank went on? (the round bit that the chain goes onto)

Does this matter? The engine sounds very smooth so i can't imagine the timing can be out?


Regarding the exhaust note, i wouldn't know as i changed the exhaust system at the same time.


oh and happy christmas all

Slowcrash_101

Maybe it is off a tooth then, the piston can look like it's top dead center and be off. Also there's marks on the chain to help guide you. The only true way to find tdc is to use a dial indicator. Luckily you don't have to take it all appart to reposition the chain. Once you find TDC you can put the transmission in 6th and pull the hand brake to lock it in.

99SH

How are you verifying TDC? Use the white timing mark on the crank pulley, then look at your cam & timing gear.

There are some great reference photos here:
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/108...ng-chain-gear/

Courtesy Ballade Sports: