Valve Clearance

russkiypenguin1 · Post by **russkiypenguin1** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:36 am

I've never adjusted mine. And I'm confused. The factory manual we have here in PDF says to adjust it every 15k miles, but my chilton's says to do it every 60k miles. That's a pretty big difference.

I remember my Yamaha motorcycle manual had the same recommendation. When I took it to a shop to see what it would run me they told me that I wouldn't need. In fact they said I probably would never need to do it.

GTSSportCoupe · Post by **GTSSportCoupe** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 11:27 am

I did it on a tercel I had in the past. I didn't seem to make much difference to the sound or performance of the engine. I'm not sure if the gap wears closer than spec or further than spec. If it work closer than spec than the valves might not be closing all the way in a worst case scenario. If the gap wears further than spec, than I guess the valves would not be opening all the way...

takza · Post by **takza** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 5:22 am

I adjusted mine cause I had (have) a noise at the back of the valve cover that I thought might be a loose valve....but adjusting them didn't make any difference.

Guessing that the noise might be the fuel pump.

Anyone else have what sounds like maybe a loose valve towards the back?

There's a writup on adjusting them.

Adelard of Bath · Post by **Adelard of Bath** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:15 am

I know a guy who used to have an 81 Celica that was pretty cool, with a 22R engine in it...and I watched him do the valves every couple of weeks for a while...he was obsessed! he would swear that there was some noise that the people on his Celica Forums suggested would cause premature wear on the engine....well the truth is, it never ever made a bit of difference.

I have an old volvo with 225k on it and as far as I know the valves have never been adjusted heh but that is a different system, no rocker arms...the manual suggests every 100k or so, perhaps I should do it.