Tappet Adjustment

Tappet Adjustment

Author
Discussion

markys

Original Poster:

612 posts

258 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
Who often should it be done, mine a 4.2 was last done a couple of years ago but ony 6000 miles or so.

bigbazza

2,135 posts

248 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
Hi mark, mine is a 4.5 but the factory tell me they shud be done every MAJOR service 12k....when I bought mine at 46k the engineer at the factory reckons they had NEVER been done so I am keeping on top of them now.

crazycats

700 posts

250 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
Should be done at every 12k service, I've just done mine, and found that all the exhausts were fine.

However all the inlets were about 2 or 3 thou, whereas the factory says 8.

The gaps will never get larger due to valve stem stretch, which by 30,000 they should've stopped.

Joolz has a special tip about them, but I'm sworn to secrecy

yiw1393

23,018 posts

262 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
Minor hijack.........

Why is the adjustment so expensive to have done? Is it so very much different to 'normal' cars?

Hijack over

I have a vested interest, because of the impending arrival of a Cerb

rev-erend

21,421 posts

285 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
I think it's because they are 'bucket and shim'.

You measure all the gaps - then take all cam train
apart - measure shim - fit new correct size shim.

Replace cam train.

Measure all gaps and hope you got it right.

mystery tramp

52 posts

246 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
yiw1393 said:
Minor hijack.........

Why is the adjustment so expensive to have done? Is it so very much different to 'normal' cars?

Hijack over

I have a vested interest, because of the impending arrival of a Cerb


I wondered about this too. As far as I could tell (and I'm sure others will correct me on this), it depends who you get to do it. If you go to a main dealer they have a fixed price (seems around the £250 mark) based on the assumption that they will adjust them all and they charge a fairly high price for labour. If you use an independent (like APM who did my 36000 service, including tappets - and did an excellent job, thanks Andy) you will get better value as you will only pay for what gets done.

yiw1393

23,018 posts

262 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
rev-erend said:
I think it's because they are 'bucket and shim'.

You measure all the gaps - then take all cam train
apart - measure shim - fit new correct size shim.

Replace cam train.

Measure all gaps and hope you got it right.



A more complicated version of the old BL 'B' series engines then? It's got to be more than that surely? I've heard horrendous prices for a tappet adjust - £400+

Or is it more akin to a top end rebuild (unlike the BL motor)?

crazycats

700 posts

250 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
rev-erend said:
I think it's because they are 'bucket and shim'.

You measure all the gaps - then take all cam train
apart - measure shim - fit new correct size shim.

Replace cam train.

Measure all gaps and hope you got it right.


Hope you got it right is spot on!!! Took me 3 attempts to get em right, wanted them exact though, even a thou out wasn't good enough!!!

On the 4.2 it involves remove the inlet manifolds too.

markys

Original Poster:

612 posts

258 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
So should I have them done now ? Another 3K miles until next service which will be a 12K one I think.

crazycats

700 posts

250 months

Thursday 12th February 2004
quotequote all
markys said:
So should I have them done now ? Another 3K miles until next service which will be a 12K one I think.


If next service is a 12K one, then wait till then.

markys

Original Poster:

612 posts

258 months

Friday 13th February 2004
quotequote all
Might just wait for another 2k rather than 3 and have a 12k service and tappets done before the warranty runs out.

johnmckenzie

158 posts

269 months

Wednesday 25th February 2004
quotequote all
crazycats said:
Should be done at every 12k service, I've just done mine, and found that all the exhausts were fine.

However all the inlets were about 2 or 3 thou, whereas the factory says 8.

The gaps will never get larger due to valve stem stretch, which by 30,000 they should've stopped.

Joolz has a special tip about them, but I'm sworn to secrecy


Not so I'm afraid. I thought this to be true as well but recent experience has shown differently. Tappets were adjusted at the 36,000 mile service. At the 42000 the car was running poorly with low speed hunting, poor part throttle running and general malaise. The boys at peninsula checked everything likely from throttle pots, injectors, fuel pressure, spark traces etc etc All OK but they were having great difficultly in balancing the throttles out. In final frustration, they lifted the cam covers and checked gaps. One was ZERO!!!! Another was 16 thou (instead of 11 I believe) others had closed up too but not quite as severly. Gaps all reset and hey presto. Engine now sweet as a nut. Moral to this? - every engine has its own quirks and generalisations are dangerous. Get them checked every service and dont rely on the its all over by 30000 tales. Mind you, Peninsula were surprised too.

Regards John

joospeed

4,473 posts

279 months

Wednesday 25th February 2004
quotequote all
something very strange about your engine then john .. if there's a large gap there's a reason .. either it was set incorrectly before or there's something happening .. top of valve stem hammered?

johnmckenzie

158 posts

269 months

Wednesday 25th February 2004
quotequote all
joospeed said:
something very strange about your engine then john .. if there's a large gap there's a reason .. either it was set incorrectly before or there's something happening .. top of valve stem hammered?

Absolutely nothing visibily amiss - cams are still beautiful - like new, valve tops look fine. I thought Richard rang you about it last week, at least I thought he was on the phone to you, lol

John

GALLYTVR

28 posts

246 months

Friday 27th February 2004
quotequote all
does anyone know the settings and if done hot or cold

crazycats

700 posts

250 months

Friday 27th February 2004
quotequote all
GALLYTVR said:
does anyone know the settings and if done hot or cold


Definitely cold