Did a valve adjustment on the long weekend to try quieten down the valve train a little and what a nightmare it turned out to be.
I have done it before but a lack of sizes in the feeler gauges I had made the job more than difficult so I abandoned to do it another day. A previously stretched valve cover bolt also sheered off in my torque wrench which put a downer on the whole attempt.
Monday was that 'another day' and armed with a few tricks learnt from the previous time started spannering. Moved the air box out the way to get good access to the crank bolt, covers off, coil packs out, valve cover off.
Cranked the engine to TDC and started to work through the valves. All goes well, 1, 4 and most of 3. One valve giving me problems with the no-go go method I am using. Adjust the screw down to a 0.009" gap, torque the locking nut up, adjustment screw torqued onto the feeler gauge prevents movement while doing so. Check position of screw has not moved (which in all other cases it had not) measure to the correct 0.008" gap...voila. Sorted.
Not this valve though, no matter what re-torquing the locking nut sent the adjustment WAAAY out. It appears the adjustment screw was bending the feeler gauges and not pressing down onto the valve, or it was and the valve was moving. Either-way I think it warrants further investigation. I understand cracking/cracked valve retainers, apart from being potentially fatal to the engine, can cause the valve stem to drop...this might be what is happening here but I hope not.
In the end I made the adjustment on a 0.013", torqued up the locking nut, yanked the gauge out and managed to get a solid 0.009" gap.
Before this though I tried to do the other method of holding the adjustment screw in place with a driver and using a ring spanner to torque up the locking but. Intake side....fuel rail...injectors.....VERY limited space. It was a finger acrobatic affair which ended up with a *ding dang DOOONG* as my ratchet ring spanner bounced down under the intake manifold and somewhere onto the engine.
Profanity ensues.
I fashioned a long enough hooked metal stick out of an old kebab skewer and awkwardly attempted to fish it out with torch in t'other hand. 10 minutes and I finally get the hook through one of the rings and start to attempt extraction....nope....spanner is still stuck, and so is my fishing rod.
Muchos profanity ensues.
Another 25 minutes of wresting with my fishing rod and I get the thing out, less spanner of course...too easy that would be wouldn't it?
Not wanting to repeat that again I manage to move coolant hosing and various wiring out of the way and like a vet giving birth to a baby cow get elbow deep into god knows what areas of the engine bay and JUST get a finger tip onto the spanner and get it out.
MUCHOS sighs of relief.
Adjust up cylinder 2, get it all back together and turn the thing over. Somewhat smoother, not as much as I had hoped but this might be indicative now of a Timing Chain Tensioner issue (common noise generator on the f20c but not all that troublesome) OR worse an issue with what could be an issue with a cylinder 3 intake valve.
If I was not so annoyed and a little more inclined to probe deeper I might of attempted removing more parts to get a good look at the retainer...but this is a bit beyond my confidence in my ability at the moment! It's a little strange that it was just the one valve that I had issues with the cylinder 3 bank so it's unlikely I had not unloaded the valves from the cams completely or all valves would have presented issues.
Anyway, it's a little quieter, was a little more difficult than it needed to be, and I am a little more concerned I might have an issue beyond adjustment.
Yay!
I have done it before but a lack of sizes in the feeler gauges I had made the job more than difficult so I abandoned to do it another day. A previously stretched valve cover bolt also sheered off in my torque wrench which put a downer on the whole attempt.
Monday was that 'another day' and armed with a few tricks learnt from the previous time started spannering. Moved the air box out the way to get good access to the crank bolt, covers off, coil packs out, valve cover off.
Cranked the engine to TDC and started to work through the valves. All goes well, 1, 4 and most of 3. One valve giving me problems with the no-go go method I am using. Adjust the screw down to a 0.009" gap, torque the locking nut up, adjustment screw torqued onto the feeler gauge prevents movement while doing so. Check position of screw has not moved (which in all other cases it had not) measure to the correct 0.008" gap...voila. Sorted.
Not this valve though, no matter what re-torquing the locking nut sent the adjustment WAAAY out. It appears the adjustment screw was bending the feeler gauges and not pressing down onto the valve, or it was and the valve was moving. Either-way I think it warrants further investigation. I understand cracking/cracked valve retainers, apart from being potentially fatal to the engine, can cause the valve stem to drop...this might be what is happening here but I hope not.
In the end I made the adjustment on a 0.013", torqued up the locking nut, yanked the gauge out and managed to get a solid 0.009" gap.
Before this though I tried to do the other method of holding the adjustment screw in place with a driver and using a ring spanner to torque up the locking but. Intake side....fuel rail...injectors.....VERY limited space. It was a finger acrobatic affair which ended up with a *ding dang DOOONG* as my ratchet ring spanner bounced down under the intake manifold and somewhere onto the engine.
Profanity ensues.
I fashioned a long enough hooked metal stick out of an old kebab skewer and awkwardly attempted to fish it out with torch in t'other hand. 10 minutes and I finally get the hook through one of the rings and start to attempt extraction....nope....spanner is still stuck, and so is my fishing rod.
Muchos profanity ensues.
Another 25 minutes of wresting with my fishing rod and I get the thing out, less spanner of course...too easy that would be wouldn't it?
Not wanting to repeat that again I manage to move coolant hosing and various wiring out of the way and like a vet giving birth to a baby cow get elbow deep into god knows what areas of the engine bay and JUST get a finger tip onto the spanner and get it out.
MUCHOS sighs of relief.
Adjust up cylinder 2, get it all back together and turn the thing over. Somewhat smoother, not as much as I had hoped but this might be indicative now of a Timing Chain Tensioner issue (common noise generator on the f20c but not all that troublesome) OR worse an issue with what could be an issue with a cylinder 3 intake valve.
If I was not so annoyed and a little more inclined to probe deeper I might of attempted removing more parts to get a good look at the retainer...but this is a bit beyond my confidence in my ability at the moment! It's a little strange that it was just the one valve that I had issues with the cylinder 3 bank so it's unlikely I had not unloaded the valves from the cams completely or all valves would have presented issues.
Anyway, it's a little quieter, was a little more difficult than it needed to be, and I am a little more concerned I might have an issue beyond adjustment.
Yay!
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