tangoray

As part of my 54k (technically 56k for me ) service today i did the valve adjustment. just wanted to share my experience / findings

Having never done a valve adjustment before, but having a few years worth of enthusiast spanner swinging behind me i was definately up for the challenge. Had read through a number of guides before hand to give myself a heads up, and purchased a set of angled feeler guages. It took around 4 hours in total, checking eveything around 3 times...plus once finished setting the clearances initially, turning the engine over 3 times by hand and rechecking to confirm all numbers and torques one final time.

whilst at it i tried to check all the retainers using a torch and a dental mirror....found it quite difficult to get a good look however spent a couple of mins on each cylinder looking at various angles and non of them seemed higher than the rest so i was as happy as i could be on that front....i have no reason to believe any would be cracked but its worth the check. couldnt really be fussed to remove the cams!

Here are my valve clearances before adjustment...as you can see they are all over the place....however apart from a bit of valvetrain tick and a slightly bumpy idle the car ran great. i assume my car has never had a VA done.

Before

Cylinder 1
Ex 0.009
Ex 0.009
In 0.008
In 0.008

Cylinder 2
Ex 0.009
Ex 0.007 !!
In 0.010
In 0.011

Cylinder 3
Ex 0.009
Ex 0.007 !!
In 0.010
In 0.010

Cylinder 4
Ex 0.011
Ex 0.009
In 0.010
In 0.009

After

Intakes set at 0.008
Exhaust set at 0.010

Thoughts / findings

the car idles extereemmmmly smooth now! i had initially put the slightly bumpy idle down to the IAC which i hadnt got round to cleaning yet (i still will do) but todays VA seems to have sorted that.

the valve tick has now gone which is nice....wound the windows down while idling next to a wall and the engine is definatley quieter (not that it was loud to begin with, but there was a few stray tick tick ticks from the valvetrain)

cant believe a couple of the exhaust valves where at 0.007 when the lower end of tolerance is 0.10....not sure what to make of that?

Saved myself a pretty penny so happy with that too!

heres a picture just for good measure...because we all love pictures

Ultra_Nexus

Hmm, are you sure you measured your exhaust valves right? 7 on the exhaust is low - I ran my intake on that!

I can't see why your adjustments would reduce noise either. Only once your above 13thou does it sound tappy. I have done cars with 20thou and ones that have just been done by Honda with 18 thou

If I were you, I'd give them a check after 1000 miles, just to make sure the clearances you set were right.

tangoray

maybe its placebo effect but it does seemed to have reduced a bit of valvetrain noise...

thats exactly what i thought...on the two valves that i recorded at 007, the 009 feeler definatley wouldnt go in and im pretty sure 008 guage would not go in either, or maybe would if really forced in...i checked each valve 2 or 3 times until i was happy to get the numbers before i loosened the lock nut off, and same again when resetting to the new clearances...it did suprise me!

yeah i probably will check in a 1000 miles or so just for peace of mind cheers

richmc

I recently posted about clearances, after doing some research it seems the exhaust valves tighten over time so I could believe that before number.

SiR Shizzle

Interesting - any improvement in throttle response?

I had my old EP3 civic done at 85k miles and it felt like a new car! My S2000 is a 99 spec on 126k miles and I doubt it's ever been done so I'm thinking of doing it soon.

BCA

I noticed mine felt a little quicker, could be placebo, was done at 81k.. What isn't a placebo is the noticeably improved fuel consumption! Exhaust was a bit out (tight) intake fine.. Everything looked really nice under there, some lovely engineering on show too!

tangoray

yeah i read from the Billman threads that the exhaust clearances tend to tighten over time and not loosen...i imagine mine all started life on the exhaust at 0.011....in 56k some have tightened up a fair bit, some havent.

not that ive noticed to be honest

im due to fill her up tomorrow so im looking forward to better fuel consumption!! will be able to guage it properly then....although this last quarter tank has seemed to go down slower now you mention it

BCA

When I said noticeable, I mean it. I'm three tanks down now, and each one has been significantly better than I normally get!