Well I figured I would do a valve adjustment since i was at 115k miles. I have done adjustments before on other vehicles, gas and diesel. It's the same concept. I'm aware with how much drag there should be and such but on a TL do you have to have it be tighter and have a lot of drag? I know I was doing the right specs, they are just a tad too loose now. You can hear that it's louder.

Looking for someone that has done a valve adjustment before and has any tips as far as tightening them goes. is it better to be on the tight side or loose side? (I assumed loose side since its safer than having overly tight valves)

 

Nothing special about our valves. Same feel as for any other valve adjustment.

Since our exhaust valves tend to tighten and the intakes tend to loosen, you might consider adjusting the exhaust on the "loose end" of the spec and the intakes on the "tight end" of the spec.

When you first checked the valves, what measurements did you find for them before adjusting? And what specs did you set each to?

If you are certain you set them to spec, it may just be your ears/mind playing tricks on you.

And just for reference, you were using these specs?:

Intake: 0.20-0.24mm, 0.008-0.009 inch
Exhaust: 0.28-0.32mm, 0.011-0.013 inch

 

I verified the size of my feeler gauges with a micrometer; some of the cheap sets could be out of spec. I bent a set of go/no-go gauges so that they would fit inside the head.

I initially set the exhaust valves at the higher end of the spec range and they were loud at operating temp. I had to adjust them again closer to the low end of the spec range to quiet them down.

 

If you aren't certain about the feel, after you adjust the clearance, try a .001 greater gauge to see if it's set too loose.

 

I have a quick question for the OP- how far out of spec were the valves prior to the adjustment at 115,000 miles?

 

Was the engine completely cool; did you let it sit overnight before adjusting?

What spec did you use? I always go by the sticker under the hood. I would do as Turbonut said and if you're not sure, try one that's one size larger and make sure it won't fit. With the somewhat limited clearance on the back head if the gauge isn't inserted flat you will end up with loose valves.

When in doubt I'll leave the intakes just a little on the tight side, exhaust just a little on the loose side. I was able to get mine perfect except for one exhaust valve that was giving me problems. After 30 minutes on it I left it just a tiny bit loose. You could hear the one valve. It was no louder than stock but the rest were silent. After about 6,000 miles it's silent like the rest.

On the positive side, louder will usually not hurt anything. It's when the exhausts get tight and quiet that you can hurt valves.

Manifold vacuum is a good way to see what kind of job you did but it's usually good to check it before the valve job to compare.

But first and foremost, was the engine dead cold?

 

Sounds like I'm just gonna have to go over it again and be extra careful. Specs I used were right. Engine was cold and everything. They weren't that far out of spec. Exhaust valves were tight though.

 

As long as you're in spec, there should be very little difference. There'a actually a good bit of safety built into the specification from my experience. A little valve train sound is normal. Is there a chance this noise you're hearing could be from something else?

 

No. I know loose valves won't damage anything but I definitely didn't do it as well as I should've. I should take a video you guys will be able to tell from just that that it is loud.

 

This may be a stupid question, but when you adjusted them, did you rotate the crank and adjust them in the correct order, 142536 and adjust one cyl at a time?

 

yes^