Should I reshim or leave them as-is?

[roswell998]

If I reshim the valves, the car will have to be down for several days while I order tools/shims or wait on a rental kit. I would prefer to get it running, but don't want to press luck too far.

Advice requested regarding replacing shims. The original 60K was done at 55K and all of the valves were still well within specs. Therefore, at 106K miles all of the shims are original. Also, they are all mirror smooth and flat. Cams look perfect.

Since I only drive about 5K miles per year now and they are very easy miles, I wonder if I should replace shims or just leave them as-is for another 20-30K miles. At what point on the upper limit of gap are you running risk of engine damage? I'm not trying to squeeze every ounce of HP out of it.

Measurements are as follows:

Cyl#1(E=13/14..I=8/10) Cyl#2(E=14/15..I=10/10) Cyl#3(E=14/14..I=9/8)

Cyl#4(E=14/14..I=9/9) Cyl#5(E=14/13..I=9/9) Cyl#6(E=14/14..I=9/8)

Note that most of the exhaust valves are at the upper end of gap spec and one of them is 1/1000 over. The intake valves are within tolerance with only 2 of them at the upper end.

Thanks

 

[93nighthawk]

It is not engine damage that you are looking for when you do the shims, but Cam lobe damage. Shims do only have so long of a life time. If they look good (they don't have dirty spots that won't come off) Then I would put it off for a little while, but not too long. And sense you know the clearences, it would not take too long to swap out the shims once you dig back in there.

 

[HopefulSHO]

You could always flip the shims over if they haven't been used on the other side. Your gap's wouldn't change, but you'd have a nice fresh surface for the cams to rub on.

 

[roswell998]

Well.............decided to reshim now while the valve covers are off even though SHO will be down for a few extra days while waiting on shim kit.



Might as well do it now and then it will be years before it needs it again.

Thanks for everyone's comments