04-09-2010, 07:10

PM
#1 (permalink)
Shafto
Digital Blueprint



Join Date: May
2006
Location: Burnaby
BC
Posts: 1,809
Car: 1997 Acura
Integra
Mods: Stock

Valve Clearences

Hello guys, I was curious to see if there was a DIY thread for adjusting valve clearances and to my surprise I could
not find one.
So I thought I would let this be my first DIY I have ever made. This is only a guideline. I would recommend using the
manufacturer's
maintenance manual. Having said that, it is a really easy job and very straight forward. I will be using my B18B1 for
this DIY.
This will not work on VTEC engines.


It is recommended that you adjust you clearances every 30 000 miles/48 000km. Adjust your valve clearances when
the engine
is cold, head temperature must be below 100 degrees F or 38 degrees C.

Here are all the tools that you will need. Obviously you may use more or even less.

Ratchet
12mm wrench
10mm socket
19mm socket (Crank Pulley Bolt)
Long Extension
Short Extension
Needle Nose Pliers
Feeler Gauges
Flathead Screwdriver
Jack w/ needed equipment (Optional)


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1 Now, you need a victim:


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2 Optional Step: I like to remove my driver side tire and then lower it on a jack to make it level again.
You can do this job without removing the tire if you like, but it will just be a smidge more difficult.
I just used the OEM jack.

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3 Remove spark plug leads. If your Valve cover and surrounding area is really dirty and dusty, I would recommend
cleaning it
or air blasting it off so that when you take your valve cover off, you dont bring all kind of foreign debris into the
engine.
Next, make sure you remove everything that is attached to your valve cover. See blue arrows.


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4 Remove the 7 nuts holding the valve cover on the head.


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5 With a Flathead screwdriver or by hand if you can, remove the 7 metal grommets


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6 With a flathead screwdriver or by hand if you can, carefully remove the 7 rubber grommet seals.


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7 Now we should look something like this:


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8 Carefully Remove the valvecover - remember that there is a seal that will either stick to the valve cover (most
likely will) or stick
to the head or do a little bit of both - dont tear it.

I pull on it from each side and push my thumbs against the valve cover studs.


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9 Place your valve cover with debris in mind, Dont rest it on a pile of soil as you may regret it. Depending on the
surface I am
putting it on, I will have it face up or down.

Alright, now the business starts. Your cylinders are numbered 1-4 with 1 being closest to your cam gears and
consecutively
2-3-4 from right to left. The top cam is your Intake cam and the Bottom cam is your Exhaust cam. Since the firing
order of this
engine is 1-3-4-2 That is the order in which we will adjust the valves.


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10 In order to start on cylinder #1, we need to get it to TDC on its firing stroke. To do this we need to whip out are
long
extension and 19mm socket (I used a 3/4" and it worked a-ok) and put it through the cut-out in the left splash panel
and
secured onto the crank pulley bolt.


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11 Now we need to turn the engine counter-clockwise with our ratchet and 19mm setup until both cam gear's 'up'
marking is
pointing up and that the alignment marks are aligned with each other. Note* Dont worry if they are not point directly
up as they
wont, they will point up relative to the engine which is tilted forward*


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12 Now we are ready to adjust cylinder #1's (#3 if coming from step 15)(#4 if coming from step 16)(#2 if coming
from step 17)
Valves (4) - 2 intake, 2 exhaust. The tolerances are:

Intake - .003-.005"
Exhaust -.006-.008"

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It doesn't matter which set you do first, intake or exhaust, just remember that there are 4 clearances in total per
cylinder
that you have to do.

13 I started on exhaust. If this is the first time you have performed this, try sliding the biggest feeler gauge (.005 for
I .008 for E).
If it slides easily between the cam and the rocker arm, you need to adjust it to be within tolerances.


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14 To adjust the clearance, you need to loosen the locknut, adjust the adjusting screw, and while holding the
adjusting
screw steady, tighten the locknut. The feeler gauge should have some drag to it, not 89lbs to pull it out, but a nice
drag
(kinda notchy to pull out). Check the clearance and if it is not right, loosen the locknut and repeat. If it is good,
tighten the
locknut to 18ft/lbs while holding the adjusting scew. Check clearance again.


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15 Once you have completed all 4 adjustments on Cylinder #1, we can go to Cylinder #3. To do this, go back to your
19mm setup
and turn the engine counter-clockwise 180 degrees (which turns the cam 90 degrees) so that both 'up' markings are
pointing left.
Then repeat from step 12




16 Once you have completed all 4 adjustments on Cylinder #3, we can to Cylinder #4. To do this, go back to your
19mm setup
and turn the engine counter-clockwise 180 (which turns the cam 90 degrees) so that both 'up' markings are pointing
down. Then
repeat from step 12




17 Once you have completed all 4 adjustments on Cylinder #4, we can to Cylinder #2. To do this, go back to your
19mm
setup and turn the engine counter-clockwise 180 (which turns the cam 90 degrees) so that both 'up' markings are
pointing
right or to the back of the car. Then repeat from step 12




18 Give the valve train an overall look around, make sure there are no vtecs hiding in there. I like to give the engine
a couple
more turns (with the 19mm setup) and make sure nothing is messed over.

19 Make sure than the sealing surface is clean as well as the gasket.

20 Install valve cover.




21 Tighten Valve cover nuts to snug (I think it is like 8ft/lbs but that is a guess). It is not very much at any rate. It is
easy
to over torque these. I usually do all nuts a couple times as they will snug down more each time.

22 Install ground, Crank breathers, PCV, power steering brace, and any other crazy devices you had on there. Install
plug leads
and we should look something like this:




The manual recommends you re torque the crank pulley bolt to 130ft/lbs. I dont.

23 Cross your fingers you did nothing wrong, and start it up!!!
YouTube - MVI_1960.avi

^^^^ If anyone has any idea what that ticking is, I would love to know. What I do know is that it is definitely
coming from my
distributor and I have taken it apart (not right apart just took off rotor) and everything looks fine. I have no idea, it
has never
brought any problems but I would like it to go away. That is 1 of the 3 things that I cant figure out on the car. Other
than that
both of my header heat shields are rattling away.

24 Take it for a test drive:
YouTube - TestDrive.dv


Complete.
__________________




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04-09-2010, 07:42 PM #2 (permalink)
Anomoly
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Colorado
Springs
Posts: 6,851
Car: 1994 civic EX
Mods: nothing special ;)

just to add a bit of info, you dont need to take your wheel of if you use a wrench or a gear wrench <----best
option IMO to move the crank pulley, just pull the spark plugs, then the crank is real easy to turn
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04-09-2010, 07:45 PM #3 (permalink)
DuderMagee
Dark Samurai



Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 9,205
Car: fuzzy slippers
Mods: fuzzy dice

ehh this reminds me
I have to do that again soon
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04-09-2010, 08:38 PM #4 (permalink)
Darkness
anta honma ni shinde



Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: tim's wife every
tuesday
Posts: 28,983
Car: 325is/99 gs
Mods: vtec, hp/liter, and a
paul walker t-shirt

about time we had a new write up
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04-09-2010, 08:57 PM #5 (permalink)
Shafto
Digital Blueprint



I am surprised no one caught *or didnt mention that they caught* the fact that the pitch has been turned up
on that pull. That was pitch turned up and intake tube removed.
__________________
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Burnaby BC
Posts: 1,809
Car: 1997 Acura Integra
Mods: Stock





04-09-2010, 08:58 PM #6 (permalink)
Shafto
Digital Blueprint



Join Date: May 2006
Location: Burnaby BC
Posts: 1,809
Car: 1997 Acura Integra
Mods: Stock

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anomoly
just to add a bit of info, you dont need to take your wheel of if you use a wrench or a gear wrench <----best
option IMO to move the crank pulley, just pull the spark plugs, then the crank is real easy to turn
yah, everyone does there own thing, but I just htought, the fact that I jack up only one side, I could have just
put it in 5th and turned the tire.....
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04-09-2010, 09:01 PM #7 (permalink)
DuderMagee
Dark Samurai



Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 9,205
Car: fuzzy slippers
Mods: fuzzy dice

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkness
about time we had a new write up
dont you work on your ride all the time?
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04-09-2010, 10:20 PM #8 (permalink)
Darkness
anta honma ni shinde



Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: tim's wife every
tuesday
Posts: 28,983
Car: 325is/99 gs
Mods: vtec, hp/liter, and a
paul walker t-shirt

Quote:
Originally Posted by DuderMagee
dont you work on your ride all the time?
yup...that's why i hit a telephone pole just so i can have more time with her
__________________
"Nismo stands for Nissan Motorsports, Homo stands for Honda
Motorsports"
-Kyle Basbous





04-11-2010, 08:05 AM #9 (permalink)
DuderMagee
Dark Samurai



Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 9,205
Car: fuzzy slippers
Mods: fuzzy dice

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkness
yup...that's why i hit a telephone pole just so i can have more time with her
so why don't you do some right ups?
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04-11-2010, 10:01 AM #10 (permalink)
Darkness
anta honma ni shinde



Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: tim's wife every
tuesday
Posts: 28,983
Car: 325is/99 gs
Mods: vtec, hp/liter, and a
paul walker t-shirt

Quote:
Originally Posted by DuderMagee
so why don't you do some right ups?
how do you "right" something that hasn't been wronged?

and besides people will get mad if i do a write up on a nissan......they seem to bring it up in debates even
though i never do
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04-11-2010, 09:30 PM #11 (permalink)
Anomoly
Moderator

Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Colorado
Springs
Posts: 6,851
Car: 1994 civic EX
Mods: nothing special ;)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shafto
I am surprised no one caught *or didnt mention that they caught* the fact that the pitch has been turned up
on that pull. That was pitch turned up and intake tube removed.
didnt sound like a LS, looked way too fast of a pull but i hate math and mph-kph conversion gives me
headaches so i just said .....cool......as far as diffrent methods of turning the crank for valve adjustment, ive
even seen people jumper the starter so they can bump it over with the starter, to each his own i guess
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09-24-2010, 12:12 AM #12 (permalink)
chansta
Noob

Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: SOCAL
Posts: 19
Car: 89 CIVIC HB
Mods:

although im completely sure all our honda motors run on hydraulic lifters... just for the sake of knowledge solid
lifters must have a specific valve lash.
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09-28-2010, 09:57 PM #13 (permalink)
Anomoly
Moderator

Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Colorado
Springs
Posts: 6,851
Car: 1994 civic EX
Mods: nothing special ;)

have you ever been inside a honda head?? i cant think of ONE where i saw a hydro lifter or any lifter for that
matter.....id say closer to rocker arms one end rides the cam, the other rides the valve.....VTEC "lifter" is
HYDRO engaged, but still does not operate like a hydro lifter
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06-26-2011, 09:05 PM #14 (permalink)
obrienintegra18
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3
Car:
Mods:

he doesnt mention that if you adjust them to tight that you can cause major engine damage. and also if you
have a stick shift have in neutral or it will jump timing and you probably wont know until you start it up and
again major engine damage. i have been a honda tech for 12 years and some things should be left to the pros
this is one of them. that tick is normal . honda says a noisey valve is a happy valve