replaced Valve eccentrics..except for one

[e30strokr]

Hello guy.. and girls?


I ended up changing the M20 valve Eccentrics since I heard it will help quiet down the ticking.. however in my rush ( I know) I forgot to tighten one down (intake, second one on top from front engine) and it started making that awful tapping sound... I turned off the car check and tighten.. it was not tight at all.. doublecheck everything.. however the tapping keeps happening, car is quiet upon startup but the noise starts after a minute or two on...


the valve was not open if the eccentric was loose so there should be no damage .. right?


I don't feel a power loss and no other type of shaking but the noise is loud and annoying


what do you guys think?

[zaq123]

tapping on these is normal, obviously within a limit. The valve will still open even if the eccentric wasn't set right. Check your valve stem ends for any visible mushrooming, damage and eccentric for any wear/scoring . If all is good, adjust your valve clearances, tighten eccentrics and enjoy the car. It is a good practice to have a small marking paint bottle, marker or as a last resort - your wife/GF's nail polish when working with a lot of hardware. When bolt/nut is tightened and checked, mark it with paint and move to another. Before putting everything back into the service, give it a look to make sure there are no bolts/nuts without paint dots on them.

[jeffnhiscars]

Being a small diameter fine thread makes the eccentric bolts prone to stripping, especially if anyone heavy handed tightened them at some point. For this reason I never adjust valves unles# I have spare nuts on hand.

Obviously you don't want a poorly adjusted valve but more critically you do not want to lose that steel slinky in your engine so before you play with it I'd put a cloth beneath it and def a good magnet...just in case.

[digger]

Being a small diameter fine thread makes the eccentric bolts prone to stripping, especially if anyone heavy handed tightened them at some point. For this reason I never adjust valves unles# I have spare nuts on hand.

Obviously you don't want a poorly adjusted valve but more critically you do not want to lose that steel slinky in your engine so before you play with it I'd put a cloth beneath it and def a good magnet...just in case.

I also use oe hardware I found the aftermarket stuff made from cheese and prone to stripping a while back so swapped it out. A new m20 won't tap/tick but after a while things loosen up a bit and it ticks.

One thing I found with the HD rockers is the slot is slightly narrower than oe slot which means the eccentric doesn't rotate as easy when the nut is loose.