valve lash results 290k miles

Not too bad of a report from 290k miles. I purchased this truck from the original owner and I don't seen any documentation of this ever being done. I've been chasing a slight 2000-2500 rpm ping/knocking noise and checking this valve lash was one of the things on my list.

Here are the pics from under the cover. Looks pretty good to me. I plan to correct the shim tolerance by surface grinding all of the exhaust shims (individually of course) to obtain ~.012-.013" and I also plan to correct the one intake shim that is on yhe low end. I'm pretty new to valve train work but I've been a machinist for 24 years.

Here are my findings:

 

I plan on tackling this job soon as well. 2 of my exhaust valves are at .008 and the rest are at .010. I plan on trying to get them all around .014 since they tighten up over time.

 

That makes sense to me. There's some great vids out there that makes this less job intimidating. Being organized and meticulous is imperative. But really as long as you check the clearance before startup, there is no danger. How many miles are on your truck?

 

I just past 175k. I have all the tools to do the job and a friend of mine lent me his collection of shims from when he was a toyota mechanic. I have at least 30 to work with so I hopefully won't have to order any.

 

That's fantastic and a bit more simple than what i'm thinking about doing.

 

This makes me think it's a waste of time to do it every 60k like some people say. You've got 290k, probably never been done, and they're not even rediculously out of spec. I've got 73k on my 3rz. It's never been done and it probably won't be checked till 100k. Probably do water pump and timing chain at the same time.

 

Looks great inside. Clearances are very good for 290,000 miles assuming they've never been adjusted.

I think it would be helpful to list which engines require this service. Pretty sure my 2006 2.7 has hydraulic adjustment (automatic/maintenance free).

 

It's only an issue with the 2RZ and 3RZ

 

I decided to remove the exhaust cam and have no regrets about going this direction. If I only had to make adjustments to 2 or 3 shims, it would be different.


Here's a few pics and a revised chart that shows how I kept the shims straight. I'm surface ground them at work today. I got them to .013-.014" valve lash on all exhaust valves. The number that's circled on bag is what I planned to grind the shim to. The number on written on each shim is how much I planned remove in order to get .014" clearance.

 

All done and truck is back together purring great.

Here are a few pics I took today. One on the grinder and one of a freshly ground shim. I wrote the new thickness on it to help help double check as I re assembled.

 

Well I didn't really take any pictures other than one, but I just completed my adjustment. The last valve shim at cyl 4 really kicked my ass. The heater hose is in the way of using the tool and you basically have to do it blind. I spent a lot of time literally sitting/laying on the engine. I got everything back together and didn't really notice much difference in the way the truck runs. At least I know I should be good for another 175k miles now.

Having at least 30 shims on hand from a friend of mine definitely made the job easier.

 

Subd for future reference

 

Good job getting it all back together Noah. Having those shims on hand is fantastic. I didn't notice anything different about how my truck ran either. But its piece of mind knowing that the valve lash is correct.

 

Yes, I realize I'm resurrecting and old thread but wanted to ask a related question.

I replaced the head gasket on my 2.7L engine (224K) and while it was out I decided to have the exhaust valves re-seated because of some minimal pitting. Of course since I did that it also required me to check and adjust my valve spacing on all of the exhaust valves. Reading about how bad it is to have a tight clearance I opted to target for the .013" range. Most ended up there (since I could only get things close using shims purchased from Toyota) but 3 ended up at a tight .014". After I got everything back together and running I can now hear a very noticeable "noise" that wasn't present before doing the job. I have taken the valve cover off and double checked everything I had apart and it all seems withing spec. The noise (which makes it sound like a diesel) seems loudest when first started and quiets down a little after it warms up. Should I have spaced these closer to .011"-.012"? I don't really see what else in the valve train could be making it so noisy. The truck seems to run fine but it is a new to me truck so I don't really know much about it's performance before I did the work. I don't really drive it much either but the gas mileage does seem to suck. It does have an automatic transmission so that probably isn't helping.

Anyways, anyone have an opinion about whether I should try to tighten up the clearance on these valves or just run it as it is?

Thanks for you help.

Oh, and as for my background, I am a 50 year old backyard wrench turner that normally does all the work on my own cars. I have done many head gasket jobs and two complete engine rebuilds in my lifetime so I do know a little bit about how an engine works. I'm just new to these Toyotas and want to learn more about them.

 

A valve clearance greater than spec is likely to cause more valvetrain noise. What is the spec for your engine? I would aim for the looser end of the specified range, but still within the range, to allow for some valve seating and still be within spec after this wear-in.

And I will ask the obvious question: how is 0.014 tight compared to 0.013 ? That is a larger gap and I would call it loose.

 

By that I meant that the .014" feeler gauge was tight when inserting it. The .013" was loose. 0.014" is the max acceptable clearance for the 2.7L as I have read here and other places on the net. 0.010 being the tightest clearance recommend by the manufacturer.