Valve adjustment question (yes, another one)

[Joe Flanagan]

I have read the technical tip on this procedure. My question is when you do stage B, I assume the rotor should be pointing to 1 o'clock, indicating cylinder #6 is on the compression stroke. I did this and both valves on #6 are closed. Is this correct or am I supposed to go all the way around and back to 7 o'clock to do stage B?

Tried to adjust them with the engine running and all I can say is, I'm running out to Sears tomorrow for some tappet wrenches. I was using regular open end wrenches and it was ridiculous. Oh yeah, and it was around 90 degrees out, too. What fun. I did fix my carburetor though and adjusted it using a tach/dwell meter. I have it idling at 500 RPMs. Sounds very nice. Also, I now can start it without having to use starting fluid. Just a slight pull on the throttle linkage and that's all she needs.

[P-12 Tommy]

Joe, It's good to know you've got it running decent now. Just a little minor adjusting. Mine runs pretty good. I wanna check mine to see where their at. I've got to get me some tappet wrenches.

Tom

[Don Jordan]

Where did you get a 6v Tach/Dwell meter?

just curious. Don't tell me Sears because all they have is 12v. I got a cheap one at a swap meet, got home and it doesn't work.

I'd like to find a 6v Tach/Dwell and a tachometer. not easily available.

Went for a ride today. Parked at the Home Depot lot - far from all the door bangers. Some lady (I guess she was a lady) pulled next to me as I was getting out. She looked older than me. She asked if she could see the car. Her dad had a DeSoto and a Dodge and they both looked like my P15. We talked for a while and I could tell it was bringing back very positive, happy memories. Made me feel good. I drove home and had a smile on my face the whole way. I chuckle out loud as I'm driving down the street.

[Joe Flanagan]

Don, I used a 12v meter. I reversed the polarity on the leads and it seemed to work. Maybe I have fooled myself though. Idling with 500 RPMs on the meter sounds very nice, I have to say.

[Cpt.Fred]

why is it ridiculous to try normal wrenches?

i have to adjust my valves, too, and it seems a good idea to ask you first before i walk right into the same trap...

i must say i'm still a little afraid of the procedure...

[Jim Saraceno]

Here is a slightly different method. I find it works for me...

The tappet wrenches are longer and have a smaller head. They are well worth the investment.

[Joe Flanagan]

Fred,

It's hard to get any leverage with the short wrenches. As I understand it, the tappet wrenches are longer than regular wrenches. I found some of the adjusting nuts to be very stubborn. Also, with the shorter wrenches, your hands are nice and close to the hot exhaust manifold. You will exhaust your German swear word vocabulary very quickly, then switch to all the English swears you know, and then wish you could speak another language. I did wear gloves but after a point, I just couldn't feel anything with my fingers and ditched them. Some guys recommend cutting the fingers out, which I'll probably do. I have one valve that is way too tight and I can't budge it and another one that is too loose and making noise.

[Cpt.Fred]

ok, thanks, that makes sense to me now.

you don't know how creative i am when it comes to swearing:D but i'll follow your advice anyway, many thanks for it!

(as for swearing, we already discussed this some time ago in my thread about rear break drums and the meaning of "bfh"...tee-hee...)

i'm a little confused since i found different data regarding tappet clearance in my thompson tune up manual than in the tech section...

are they different on 201, 218 and 230 engines?

most likely they are...?

by the way, if anyone's interested, i've got the thompson manual for all models from 39 to 48 with me here.

i can scan it and post it or email it to anyone interested;)

best,

fred

[Joe Flanagan]

My manual calls for .10 as a hot adjustment on both the exhaust and intake valves, so that's what I'm going with. I've come across a few different recommended clearances in my research. My valves made no noise at all when set to the cold specifications. Now that I've gone in there and messed with them, I have at least one noisy one and one that has zero clearance and which I can't move. I have decided to abandon the Stage A-Stage B technique given in the technical tips section of this site. Others have had trouble with it and I'm having trouble with it, too. I'm going to try to do it with the engine running.

[Joe Flanagan]

I think I got away from my original question, which was, if stage A is with the rotor pointing at the 7 o'clock position and the valves on #1 closed, is stage B achieved by simply turning the engine so that the rotor is pointing to 1 o'clock (# 6 firing)? Or do I have to go 360 degrees and back to one o'clock for stage B?

[Jim Saraceno]

is stage B achieved by simply turning the engine so that the rotor is pointing to 1 o'clock

Yes. If you turn it back to 7 o'clock you will be right back to where you started.

Just to thicken the soup. Don't forget to visually check the tops of your tappets. They will wear and become cupped on top. If that happens it will throw your adjustment out of whack.

[Joe Flanagan]

There really isn't any way to see this unless you remove the tappet, right?

[Don Coatney]

Don't forget to visually check the tops of your tappets. They will wear and become cupped on top. If that happens it will throw your adjustment out of whack.

Whack is very important in this case.

There really isn't any way to see this unless you remove the tappet, right?

Right is correct. I hope you did a good inspection prior to install.

Remember when adjusting valves to always lean on the side of loosness. A little tapping noise will run for ever. Over adjusting will lead to burning and destroying the valve seat on the exhaust valves. I once observed an exhaust valve adjusted so tightly that it actually burnt through the hardened valve seat and ate a big chunk of the block totally destroying the engine.

As I have a re-ground cam in my engine the re-grinder recommended .014" (cold) for both the intake and exhaust valves. I set them as recommended thirty thousand miles ago and have not touched them sence. My engine runs great.

[Jim Saraceno]

There really isn't any way to see this unless you remove the tappet, right?

Good question. You don't need to remove the tappet but you would have to remove the valve. You can unscrew the tappet caps while the tappets remain in the engine. I don't know if you could see the cupping with the valves in but I doubt you could do much of anything about it.

The reason the subject came up in the first place was I had adjusted the valves to very close tolerances but they still were making a lot of noise. The old mechanic I was talking to told me about the cupping. Sure enough, when I checked the tappet heads some were cupped as much as .010" which made my actual gap almost double. I just don't remember if I already had the head off and the valves out when I discovered the cupping.

So, if you've adjusted your valves and they are still making noise, that may be why.

The old mechanic that told me about this problem said they used to tighten the valves until the engine started running rough (because the valve wouldn't be closing all the way) then just back it off "a scoshe" (as opposed to "a whack").

I'm not sure I'd ever adjust my valves that way but those old guys had their old tricks and a lot of them worked.

Edited June 2, 2010 by Jim Saraceno

[Joe Flanagan]

I adjusted my valves to the cold specs when I built the engine and when I started it, they were very quiet. I didn't have any noise until I went in there and tried to adjust them hot. Round two coming up soon. Going to try to do it with the engine running.