Trouble with valve shim job.

[Off Road SHO]

Hey guys, I'm doing my first valve shim job and I'm having trouble with rotating the cams to get the final shims out. Something is keeping the cam from rotating more than about 60 degrees. This of course keeps the lobes on top of the shims on the last two of each bank. I think the lobe might be hitting the "bucket" of one that allready has the shim removed.

I was hoping to remove all the shims at once, measure them and then figure out which new shims to buy. Is that not the way? Or do you buy a bunch of shims first, not knowing what you need?

I am using Scott's nice little worksheet for the number crunching. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Tom

BTW This procedure is a real PITA, and my engine is OUT of the car on an engine stand!

 

[sdpatt]

DO NOT rotate the camshafts with the shims out. This will damage the cam lobes as they contact the hard metal of the tappet. I hope you did not get very far while trying to rotate the cams without the shims in place.

It usually only takes three positions of the crank to measure and check all 24 valve shims. You must have all 24 shims (whether old or new) in place before rotating the crank. The gapping job is usually started with a large supply of various shim sizes on hand to be able to replace the measured shims with the correct size. The gapping kits provide several of each thickness over a large range of sizes and you just return all the shims that were removed or not installed. You can calculate the shim size to the third decimal, but the final test is the feeler gauge and the feeler gauge has discreet increments.

I hope you didn't cause any damage to the cam lobes. I wish you luck.

 

[Off Road SHO]

No I dont think I did. My timing belt is disconnected so I'm turning each camsprocket by hand, when I got resistance, I stopped. I guess I'll get a kit of shims. Thanks Scott

Tom

 

[sdpatt]

It is much simpler to rotate the camshafts with the timing belt installed by using a wrench on the crankshaft damper bolt. This also keeps the crank and camshafts in the proper perspective to each other. What procedure are you following for your work?

Scott

 

[poissonverte]

From what I read it sounds like you have a couple shims out of their buckets.. rotated the cams and now probably two of the lobes are hitting the lip of the bucket.. I had the same idea about removing them all if the lobe is stuck in the shimless bucket youll have to remove the camshafts to raise it high enough to get a shim back in.. you cant force one in or would not want to.

 

[Off Road SHO]

Scott,
I was following the procedure I got from the ShoTimes list but then I deviated because of the efficiency expert in me. I've already started putting the shims back in their respective places so that I can remove the final ones to get their measurement. There's a member in Tucson that might come up to help me in a few weeks. I'm going to get a shim kit to speed up the process.

I'm also putting on a new water pump, CPS, thermostat, cam seals, crank seals, well seals, valve cover seals (gaskets ?)intake gaskets, and runner grommets...ad nauseum...

Tom