3L 2.8ltr How many of you have adjusted the shim tappets?

[trains]

Hi chaps.

I have a question for those of you who have adjusted their tappets.

the lux has done 235k, and I would be surprised if they have been done since new judging by the rest of its condition.

What km's did you do them at, and had they gone out of adjustment by much, or is the shim method alot less succeptable to going out of adjustment compared to the rocker arm adjuster.
Once adjusted, did you notice a performance drop, as we used to set up the formula fords with loose tappets for more torque. And ive noticed a simmilar performance drop on other vehicles too.

And how much did you pay for your shims??

cheers

Trains

My Wife can't shear.........But you should see her crutch !

[sniper]

I have had to have 1 shim done, and the only way i new was as to a ticking noise it was making. Cost me $100 for the checking off all shims removal of the faulty shim, then replacement and fitting of the head again.
I personally wouldnt do them till they make a noise.

[trains]

Hmm,
I dont think I will wait for a noise.
Think I will take the cover off, glowies out, and check them, and report back as to what I find.
specs are
inlet .2mm to .3
exh .4mm to .5mm

Seems like quite a large tolerance.

Last lot of shim adjustments I did was in an audi 4cyld some years ago. But I had a box of shims to dip into to get them right.

Might have to ring mr cmi toyota :(

[trains]

Hi chaps,
Finally got around to checking the valve clearances.

specs are as follows

cyld 1
Inlet 0.18 mm
Exh 0.38 mm

Cyld 2
Inlet 0.18 mm
Exh 0.45 mm

Cyld 3
Inlet 0.18 mm
Exh 0.45 mm

Cyld 4
Inlet 0.20 mm
Exh 0.45 mm

Will get a shim .05mm shorter for the inlets where there 0.18, will bring it up to 0.23.
Will shim .05 shorter for the #1 exhaust to bring it from 0.38 to 0.43.

Was quite interesting to see that no 4 is spot on for my liking.

cheers
Trains

[ferrit]

300,000kms on our hilux, head was off @ 250,000kms to replace a blown head gasket and got re-faced and fully overhauled at that point in time- valves re-ground and re-sealed, etc etc etc.

Shims were perfect- they are all within spec and still in there!

[plowy]

there is a proper tool to use for the job from toyota wich toyota don't carry
and most toyotas don't carry the shims either its something they have to order infor you

most of the time you can swap shims around to get most of the valves adjusted and then only order what you need

[Ice]

i used a toyota tool and bag of shims for my 1hz... it makes quite a difference once its done...

the 1hz though is known for stretching valves

easy process i used compressed air to pop the shims out instead of the magnet method

[trains]

I have moved a few shims around, and have all the inlets on 0.23mm and the exhaust on 0.45.
only have one more shim to do, I measured the wrong shim, and wrote it down in the wrong colum I was using for reference.
Doh.
need a 2.85, not a 2.80

Grrrr

Trains

Was thinking of making up a wedge that would hold down the buckets, I used to have a tool for the audis and vw's which wrapped around the cam, and pushed down on the bucket sides, quick and easy.
Faster to do shims than the normal 12mm nut and screwdriver if you have a well sorted selection of shims .

But not as cheap, about $15 / shim.....ouchie.

[Spud76]

Trains,
the specs you mentioned
inlet .2mm to . 3mm
exh.4mm to . 5mm

Are these the clearences from the cam lobe to the top of the cam follower/shim when the valve is closed?

also the specs on yours are smaller wouldn't that just mean the vavles would open further and give better aspiration? and how would the distance shrink vavle and seat wear?

are the shims adjustable or do you need to find the right size ones?

[trains]

Hi Spud,
These clearances are measured when the cam lobe is at the top of the cam, and the measurement is taken between the cam and the cam follower (valve bucket/ shim setup) when the valve is fully seated.

with this type of valve setup, as the valves wear into the valve seats, the gap reduces, thus some of mine were under spec.

The shims do wear, but only a minimal amount, they cannot be adjusted as such, they need to be removed and replaced with a different thickness shim to effect adjustment.

I left them at the lower end for 2 reasons.

One was that I could move the shims around a little and save money by not getting a whole lot of new ones, and secondly I will check them again in 50k and see how they have moved, so a smaller gap wasnt such a problem.

As the engine warms up the gap reduces a little, however you will get more torque with looser tappets than with tighter set ones. We used to set up the formula fords with looser tappets for that reason.
Cam and valve timing is a dark art according to some, if you look at cam timing, often a cam with more torque has later inlet and exhaust opening timing, but thats another lesson for someone else who would know far more than me to expand upon.
I dont believe that any gain in power would be had by a tighter gap than a loose one. The valve will open only a tiny amount more, nothing to have any affect, the timing would be more of a contributing factor.
Just set them up as per the book suggests at .25 and .45 or as close as you can get, as the shims are avaliable in 0.05mm steps.

Hope that helps mate

Trains

[Spud76]

Thanks trains,
got the old head in pieces now but have decided not to do the enigine by halves as there is not that much extra required to get the whole thing out. so i am gunna ripp the rest out this week and do a full engine rebuild from top to toe.
Cheers mate

[Ruffy]

Waiting for noise is a real bad idea!!. The idea of checking valve clearances is because the valves recess into the seats over time cause the valve clearances to reduce. If this happens longs enough the valve will not seat properly and will overheat the valve and burn it out. Valves shims do not wear an amount that is going to matter to the clearances. If a shim wore more than 0.005 of a mm then i'd be suprised as they are harder than the cam itself.
You will notice a performance increase if the valve clearances are too tight and then adjusted to the correct specs. The reason you got torque increase in your formula ford is because increaing the clearance retards the valve timing.

I have done many shim valve clearance adjustments and DO NOT replace shims. I get them machined down to the thickness i require. This is faster than waiting for them to be ordered from toyota. They are fully hardened so machining does not affect them. Any engineer, head reco or diff shop should be able to do this for you much cheaper and faster than getting shims from toyota.
good luck, Cheers