Valve Adjustment Failure

[Nic01101011]

Hello

I tried giving my car a valve adjustment this morning and it didn't turn out so good. Here's what I did:

1) Let car sit overnight
2) Used .010" feeler gauge with spring loaded BMW tool, made sure rockers were touching round part of camshaft
3) Double checked clearances when done

The car is now emits a low frequency LOUD tick about twice per second(far worse than before). Any tips?

[andyman2487]

You must have messed up somewhere. Perhaps you didn't tighten one of the eccentric nuts enough and it fell out of clearance when the engine started. Or you adjusted the clearance when the lobe of the cam was too close to the eccentric. Either way, I'd open it up and adjust them again -- burned valves are no fun.

[Nic01101011]

Can I reuse the new valve cover gasket? I only let the car run for a couple minutes before I turned if off.

I'll have to give it another shot tomorrow then. Like I said, I made sure the rockers were on the round part of the camshaft, the lobes were as opposite the rocker arms as I could get them. I cranked down pretty hard on the eccentric nuts.

One thing I noticed though - Though I used the spring loaded tool, the feeler gauge was easier to slide out of some valves than others. If it was too tight or loose I redid it, but even then when I double checked everything they all had varying levels of resistance. What I will do is bend the feeler gauge at the end, as I suspect the flat gauge I used before is to blame.

[Nic01101011]

Note to self: Do not over tighten eccentric nut.

[abepark]

get bent feeler guages, straight ones are hard to get under the rockers

[moatilliatta]

gasket should be still good... be sure everything is clean.

[buzdof]

I've done my fricking valves twice in the past 2 weeks and I'll be doing it again next weekend as soon as I get the new eccentrics. I get everything adjusted perfectly then within a few minutes of running the engine it goes back to this shitty loud ticking! Everything was better before I touched the damn thing :(

[jlevie]

On these engines, a mild tick from the valves when cold that subsides somewhat as the engine reaches operating temperature is normal and desirable. It simply means that the valve clearance is enough to avoid burning a valve.

[StereoInstaller1]

On these engines, a mild tick from the valves when cold that subsides somewhat as the engine reaches operating temperature is normal and desirable. It simply means that the valve clearance is enough to avoid burning a valve.

I would not agree with that at all.

1. The clearance is to allow the engine to warm and still remain within tolerance. I worked on TONS of these cars when they were new: none of them ticked, cold or hot.

2. A valve is not going to "burn" from being too far open (as would happen with too much gap) but would burn from being too closed (too much gap).

One thing I had to do on my worn out old pile of shit is to adjust by feel, using no feeler gauge at all. The reason is that the top of the valve stem wears in a "cup", thus preventing a feeler gauge from getting a proper measurement. Most of my valves are adjusted with a feeler gauge, but I ran it with the valve cover off to find the noisy ones, and carefully adjusted them by hand.

My motor is now quieter than it has ever been in 4+ years.

[jlevie]

Well, I guess we differ. A mild tick is a sign that there's some clearance in valves. Which in turn means that they are closing all the way and won't burn. Better to have a tick than to run the risk of burnt valves.

Dished valve ends will make it difficult to properly gauge the clearance and result in more clearance than measured. And worn guides will cause noise even when the clearance is correct. A head rebuild fixes either.