Gernby

Marcucci organized a tech day years ago at his home to show people how to do a "performance" valve adjustment. It was probably one of the most successful tech days we ever had. He showed the tools and techniques required to do a thorough adjustment that would improve performance while also quieting down the valve train. He did this using his own car, and was just a demo. It was NOT a group maintenance day where everyone worked on their cars.

I've been discussing valve adjustments with oyitzpreston, and it seems that maybe it's time to arrange another one of these events. I'm offering to host it at my home in McKinney, and will do the demo on my car. I'm not a mechanic, but I've been adjusting valves on various Hondas and Acuras for 18 years, and have adjusted valves on S2000's at least 10 times.

It just occurred to me that it was a bogus valve adjustment by an Acura dealership in 1992 that actually motivated me to buy my first set of tools. I took my 1 year old '91 Integra GS in for an ignition timing adjustment and valve adjustment. They charged me something like $90, and gave my car back. On the way home, I noticed that the engine was still knocking just as bad as when I dropped it off (I had manually advanced the distributor all the way out of stupidity). Those FOCKERS didn't even look at my car! They just took my money! I decided then that I would never pay a mechanic to do something that I could possibly do myself.

Now that I'm older, and have a family, I'm less determined to do everything myself. I no longer have the motivation to spend 10 hours on my back dropping a transmission to change a clutch. However, I feel that a valve adjustment is one of those TLC items that should only be done by the owner. Nobody else is going to put the time in to make sure all the valve clearances are actually THE SAME instead of just "within spec". Honda's valve clearance spec is larger than it should be IMHO.

If you guys are interested, please chime in. The date that oyitzpreston and I have considered is Feb 6th, but that might be pushed out a week or more.

LMB2000

At what mileage interval should you do a valve adjustment?

pmptx

Greg,

I am in. Please let me know when you and Preston lock down a date.
I am also happy to host tech days at my place going forward, as it may be beneficial to have a Dallas and Tarrant County version.

So if you are up to doing one in FW at some point this spring, lmk.

pmptx

Todd mentioned every 15K is the right time to check and adjust.

jaundice

I'd be up for that as well. Just maybe not on Superbowl Sunday.

Vanishing Point

In the 80's Honda recommended interval was 15,000.

In the 90's Honda recommended interval was 30,000.

With the S2000's the interval went to something like 90,000

Tanikins07

I'll be more than happy to drop by and help people w/ valve adjustments as well, I have done it about 5 times now.

PsykotiK

count me in.. i need it

Gernby

Every time I've adjusted the valves on one of my Hondas for the first time, I've found them to be close to spec, but not close to each other. I don't know if this is due to them breaking in differently, or if they are just poorly adjusted from the factory. For that reason, I always do the first valve adjustment very soon after break-in. I try to adjust them again every 20K miles, but they are rarely very far off. I think the owner's manual says they need to be inspected for the 1st time after 100K miles.

Regarding the date ... we definitely need to move it. Superbowl Sunday wouldn't work ... How about the following Sunday, Feb 13th?

PsykotiK

too close to valentines day.. the old lady wouldnt be too happy