I can't believe these valve clearance numbers . . .

New to me 4th Gen with 17K miles - hasn't been run in a couple years so I'm going through it. I have only 2 valves within spec!! The intake clearances are all either .003" and .004" with one at .005". Exhaust clearances are 3 at .004", 1 at .005", 4 at .006", and 2 at .009". I took 2 separate sets of measurements, followed the manuals to the letter, even measured my feeler gauges with my vernier caliper because I thought maybe they were shite. Any possibility that I got these numbers because the garage is freezing azz?? I'm finding it hard to believe that only 2 are within spec at 17,000 miles. Any ideas??

 

perhaps freezing cold made your hands wiggle and get wrong reading's:saturn::stickhorse::spy:

 

I know Wolf - I'm grasping at straws here. Just seems so odd given all the accounts I've read where guys go 32,000 , 48,000 plus miles before any of them need adjustment, that 14 out of 16 of mine are out of spec. I may just buy a set of those angled / tapered feeler gauges and re-measure them bastids before I buy a boatload of friggin shims.

 

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You ever get that hanging low feeling....? :smile:

I picked up a used motor, not sure of the mileage but probably under 30K, and I'm swapping 12 of 16 shims to bring them all in spec. Each motor is unique, I'd just trust your readings and replace the shims and move on. Example: This used motor had really low compression in 2 cylinders according to the wrecker that sold it to me, I re-ran the compression test 3 times and everything is in spec. Lesson: When the facts are plain and in your face, accept them.

 

Yeah, guess I'm just gonna have to pull the cams and shims, do the math, see which shims I can swap around, and get whatever new ones I need. I heard that some dealers will swap your old shims for new ones?

 

My dealer said they would swap if I had a receipt to show I had bought the shims there. Otherwise, $5 for the Hotcams shims they had in stock with limited sizes, or about $8 for Honda OEM. I had to get a mix of the two brands. I'm going to hang on to this receipt though and hold them to the swap if you have a receipt pledge, should pay off at the next valve check.

 

I'm looking at the manual (Clymer) right now. After I remove the cams, lifters and shims from the front cylinder head, can I safely rotate the crank to get cylinder #1 to TDC to remove the cams, etc. from the rear cylinder head?

 

The Factory service manual is far, far better than Clymer or Haynes. Wouldn't rely on them for critical work like cams. Answer is yes, you can rotate.

 

Thanks Squirrel. I do have both and couldn't agree with you more. Some pretty boneheaded typos/misinformation in my Haynes. For example when discussing rotating the crank to check valve clearances it says to "rotate the crankshaft clockwise (as viewed from the left-hand side). Left-hand side? WTF??