Valves.....

[Oscar]

The Toad's rehab is coming along. Today I made life difficult for myself. After fitting the front cover and the waterpump, and tightening everything down, I realized that I had forgotten to set up the spline for the pulley.....ie in and up...... It was on the bottom when I started and had fallen out into the cover during the "offering"...... :mad:

Fortunately the oil pan was still off and I was able to wiggle the piece over to the edge, around the big bearing and out.....

Trying to get it in the slot was another story..... large tweezers and other dentist paraphernalia..... several times (repeat the wiggle around the bearing each time).... Finally I was able to get it in the slot and get the pulley on there.....I was determined NOT to take that cover off again.

But I digress.....

Once the pulley and the dog were back on I checked the valve clearance. I know, the motor was cold.... but still .020 - .018 :eek: Wonder if someone got his inches and mm mixed up. (The last time they were touched was before my time in the UK......

Now, it wasn't running right before we went into rehab, but the ignition wasn't healthy either. What are, generally speaking, the symptoms of and engine running with twice the valve clearance?

[greenmeanie]

Oscar,
On the first part I presume you are referring to the woodruff key. The semantics are of little consequence other than making it a bit easier to understand. It's quite a common mistake.

Too large a gap in the valve clearance means that you are losing valve lift so your engine is not breathing as well with a consequent loss of power. You'll also find the valves are pretty noisy compared to properly set ones.

Someone will be along soon to say whether it actually shortens the life of the valve train itself which is something I can't remember.

[Jim-ME]

If I remember correctly when it comes to Rover valves, too tight is much worse than too loose.

[thixon]

Too tight, and you get blow-by on the combustion stroke. Burned valves stink.

Not sure on the too tight. My guess is there could be some mechanical wear due to uneeded smacking of parts, but I bet it would'nt be as accelarated as too tight.

You have way more patients than me. I'd of thrown wooddruf key after about three attempts. Glad you got it in there.

[gudjeon]

As mentioned ^^^^, too tight is a worse thing to find than too loose. Of course neither is ideal. Too close a gap could run the risk of valve burning. Too wide a gap would make for a very noisy valvetrain indeed with shorter valve duration= less power. You may want to investigate possible sources to verify if this is wear or just a faulty previous adjustment. One common source of valvetrain wear is the rocker shaft in the cyl. head. The rod and rocker bushes wear on the underside (of the shaft and bush) so wear is not immediately apparant until it is all disassembled. Be aware the each rocker is unique and need to be kept in order if taken apart.

At least you can check this without having to reasort to taking off the head.

Good luck

Jon