Valve clearances?
Discussion
A valve clearance is there to ensure that when everything gets hot and expands the valves are not held open.
'When I were a lad' the mechanic I learnt from would set tappets with the engine hot and running. Using a .0015" feeler he would adjust until it made no more noise. On removing the feeler you could barely hear anything. He would start by pressing on each adjuster to find the noisiest and adjust that first.
To be on the safe side if you set them at .003" hot but engine off you should be close enough. If you thing they are too loud drop them a thou. If they are completely silent you have gone too far.
As a side note setting them with the engine running makes quite a mess of a feeler.
Steve
'When I were a lad' the mechanic I learnt from would set tappets with the engine hot and running. Using a .0015" feeler he would adjust until it made no more noise. On removing the feeler you could barely hear anything. He would start by pressing on each adjuster to find the noisiest and adjust that first.
To be on the safe side if you set them at .003" hot but engine off you should be close enough. If you thing they are too loud drop them a thou. If they are completely silent you have gone too far.
As a side note setting them with the engine running makes quite a mess of a feeler.
Steve
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