Help! 3rz valve shim adjustment

Ok. Ive been putting this off for a while and finally got around to checking my clearances. 7 are too tight on the exhaust side, mostly around .006 (intake side are all in spec). I have been fumbling around with the SST tool for over an hour and only got 1 shim out. I think it will be easier to pull the exhaust camshaft off especially since I am changing 7 shims. What would this entail? Do I need to remove the timing chain tensioner and the camshaft timing gear if I am only removing the exhaust side camshaft, replacing shims, and reinstalling? Is there anything tricky about reinstalling the camshaft? I've never taken a camshaft out so any advice would be very helpful!

cheers

 

Yes, it will be easier to remove the camshaft. Download and follow the procedure in the Toyota repair manual.

No need to remove the camshaft timing gear, timing chain or tensioner. You do need to install a "service bolt" (6 x 1.0mm x 16-20mm) into the exhaust cam gear before removing the exhaust camshaft. It's actually two gears that have a spring between them, and the bolt keeps the orientation of the gears while the cam is removed. This design makes the gears quieter when they mesh together (intake and exhaust).

You didn't say what year the engine is, but if it's older, you'd need to remove the distributor.

The bearing caps holding the camshaft on need to be loosened and tightened in a particular order. (See the repair manual), and tightened to the proper torque. Make sure the camshaft goes up evenly. If it gets pushed up at an angle by the valve springs it can damage the camshaft. Keep the bearing caps in the proper order and orientation so you can put them back the same way.

The timing gears need to be oriented correctly, so set it to TDC and take pictures of the markings on the gears so you can put them back together correctly.

The shims and buckets are very slippery, so use a magnet tool or else hold them in the palm of your hand or else they'll slip out of your fingers and fall. When you take them out keep them organized. You need a very small screwdriver to pop the shim out of the bucket.

Good luck with the project!

 

Thank you so much for your post, still have a couple questions. Had a look at the FSM. When removing the camshaft do I take out the bearing cap bolts completely for each bearing cap before going to the next set of bearing cap bolts? As in, there is a clear order in which to remove the bearing caps on the FSM but I do i completely remove both bolts (backing off both evenly and slowly at the same time) before continuing on to the next pair of bolts or do I back off all bolts in the order a little bit at a time?

Andrew

 

No, loosen all bearing caps a little. When you can feel that all are a little loose (like the camshaft is not pressing up on them) try to pull the cam shaft up a little so it rises evenly. When it moves upward some of the bearing caps will feel tight again, so loosen a little more and repeat.

 

DrZ is absolutely correct, very thorough, and great write up.

Would just like to add, that I've done several of these and a good way to keep up with the shims and buckets is to place them together as they are removed, in egg cartons(same ones from your local grocery store) and label the carton sections individually with a sharpie, until you've figured out your clearances and have your new replacement shims.

Also it's been 3 years or so since my last valve job, but regarding DrZ's service bolt info, I'm almost sure I used a valve cover bolt, so if you come up one short, you know where it's at.

DrZ has you fully covered though

 

Just did this job and can confirm that the valve cover bolt will work as the service bolt.

One random very valuable lesson I learned which hopefully you should avoid by taking out the exhaust cam:

Never rotate the crankshaft without having a valve shim in EVERY bucket. It was dark and I thought I had all the valve shims in and was rotating the crankshaft in order to access a different shim on the intake side and CRACK, the lobe cracked off the lip of the bucket.....It was not fun fixing that stupid error. I was so pissed at myself.

 

Thanks for all the help. Adjusted 10 of the valves. 2 on the intake and all 8 on the exhaust. I ended up getting the hang of using the tool and could pop each shim out in under 5 minutes. The exhaust shim closest to the firewall was hard to get out and took me 30 minutes and some swear words. I put in a new valve cover gasket and new spark plug gaskets while I was in there. When I fired it off for the first time after shimming it was idling ~2000rpm. I thought I must have a vacuum leak and triple checked each hose I had disconnected. No so. I then adjusted the nuts on the throttle adjusting bolt and brought idle down to ~800. I believe the PO jacked up the idle to compensate for poor performance due to the valves needing adjustments. It runs and idles perfectly and feels much more powerful than it did before the adjustment. All valve clearances were around .006 or lower on the exhaust side. I think everyone should check the valve clearance around 100k if not earlier if you want your Toyota to last as long as the rest of the packs.

 

So you didn't end up having to take the camshaft off?

What tool did you use to hold the bucket down while removing the shim?

 

No I didn't, once I got the hang of using the tool I made quick work of taking the shims out. I used the knock off version of the adjusting tool $40 shipped from Amazon

Schley Products 88250 Valve Adjusting Tools

https://www.amazon.com/Schley-Produ...846079&sr=8-1&keywords=toyota+valve+shim+tool