cjoenck

I am doing my first valve adjustment, following Ricardo's fantastic tutorial here. I am however "stuck on my first adjustment. Cylinder 1 exhaust valve is at .17mm (intake valve is good at 0.11mm) but I can't get the counter nut to budge. What are they / should the be torqued to? Anyone ever experienced a stuck counter nut? I don't want to strip it of course. What am I missing? Any trick I should try. They are your standard "left loose, right tight" nuts, right. I am starting to question my sanity here... Thanks.

RicardoD

Yeah, that is a regular nut. Lefty loosey ((counter clockwise)

hit it with liquid wrench, kroil or whatever your favorite penetrant is. Give it some time to do its magic

use the backside method

RicardoD

You are not supposed to crank down on that jam nut. Maybe somebody did in the past. Just get it nice and snug to lock the setting in place

Goughary

Word to the wise- the torque spec is not "so tight the next guy can't get it off"...

It was said long ago that you should look up the torque spec- and get an m8 bolt and nut. Rig up something to bolt it to, oil it so it resembles the situation- and practice getting a feel for how much, how little the torque is. Tightening these is not brain surgery, but once you get a feel you won't ever worry about torque. And you won't over do it.

Enjoy the process - you'll feel good when you are done. Take your time and run through it entirely a few times checking over your work.

Too loose is ok. Too tight is not. You don't want it to be "tight 0.1mm" you want it to be "loose 0.1mm"... if that makes sense.

cjoenck

Thanks for the help. I am learning that the previous owner must have been a gorilla - or the mechanic who did the last valve adjustment many moons ago had an anger problem... I am using the Stromski tool with a dial indicator - thank you Ricardo for the incredible explanations - and double check with the backside method. I am looking forward to it, something new to learn.

RicardoD

Stromski tools are awesome. Let us know how you like it. I am sure it works great

alext2a

Hi!

@ cjoenck I had the same problem with mine, previous mechnic -> valve adjustment -> nut was very tight...

Bye, Alex

cjoenck

I have been adjusting intake and exhaust valves at the same time in the cycle, i.e. intake and exhaust for cylinder 1, intake and exhaust for #6, etc.. However, I read somewhere that I should really do all the intake valves first and then all the exhaust valves. Any reason for that suggestion?

crg53

I know you know what the proper clearance should be, just pointing this out to not add any confusion to the first timer.

0.01mm would be way..... too tight, you need to aim for 0.1mm.

Goughary

Sorry bad typo - I'll adjust that.
Thanks for catching that one...

cjoenck

Here we go. The tool works great.
Almost there...

Better ...

Goughary

Don't forget to run through a couple times. You will see how inaccurate it all is...but you will get it right enough...good job diving in!

cjoenck

I am starting to see where 0.1mm +/-5% as per workshop manual is aspirational for the mere mortals. Gone through it twice now with gauge and feeler (backside method) and I am in the "good enough" range. It's not hard, just slow and needs the right mindset, ie patience.

RicardoD

I found the dial indicator thing drove me nuts. Yours probably works better because of the Stromski fixture. Backside method still involved constant tweaking but never drove me over the edge. In my engine rebuild I had to set every damn valve but much easier with the engine out of the car. There is no greater joy in regular valve maintenance than doing a backside method check and it passing without touching anything.

titleistaddict87

Can you provide more details on the Stomski tool? Like the digital gauge but can’t see what it’s attached to.