3rz valve clearance questions

hey guys. I read somewhere that the valves on the 2.7 need adjusted every 30k miles? Mine has 315k on it and I know the valve covers never been off of it. Is this something I need to do? What could happen if I don’t? I would imagine the valves are going to get loose and not open all the way, but will it cause any real damage? Last but not least does anyone have the procedure handy to save me the trouble? Thanks

 

Clearances decrease over time between the cam lobes and the lifters resulting in the valves not making full contact with the head when they are supposed to be closed. This prevents heat transfer from the edges of the valves to the head itself and is how you end up with burned valves.

The shim over bucket design is a pain to adjust clearances on if you don't have a collection of different sized shims and can often require a two step process of going in, measuring clearances, measuring the thickness of the current shims, closing it back up, determining what new shims you need to order them later installing them.

At your mileage I'd bet the exhaust valves are mighty tight if they've never been adjusted.

 

So sounds like it would be in my best interest to pull the valve cover and check the clearances? The valve cover gasket needs to be done anyways. Which is what made me think. Might as well checkout the valve adjustment while I’m in there

 

Yeah, you may as well check while you're in there, just measuring clearances isn't much work.

 

Check that timing chain while you're at it.

 

Thanks I definitely plan on checking that out too. However it runs like a sewing machine so I'm hoping everything is well under there