Checking valve clearances 1st timer!

Last important thing to do before getting truck back together... been a long time off road. I hate working in cold if I don’t have to, so it set until April. Changed out dead water pump and replaced timing belt, sensors, seals and assorted bad parts. 2JHiLux suggested it on here I’m now going to check those valve clearances per manual. So as to prevent a head gasket failure. So I found the section in manual and already had ordered tool to remove shims. Read what to do and consulted Timmy Toolman on YouTube but his video was for 4 cylinder. Same thing though just two more cylinders to check in my case. Looked at the manual chart example for exhaust valves and it jived. The intake valve chart doesn’t jive or am I wrong? Per the example down below and chart I get a 12 but they say 10. Which I believe is same answer exhaust valve chart said.. am I just not understanding, charts wrong or example answer is wrong?

 

Here on EM7

 

whats the gap? whats the gap need to be? measure current shim and subtrack the amount needed for proper clearance.

 

Manual says to do this but I’m not sure why. I just took care of timing belt and water pump R&R but this instruction to check valve clearances makes no sense to me. The cam gear marks cannot align on passenger and drivers sides if timing belt is on. Any thoughts on this?

 

Passenger side where marks don’t align. A faded mark is barely noticeable at far left.

 

Drivers side where marks do. Plus the extra mark instead of a DOT.

 

I think manual is screwed up... There is no way to line up driver and passenger cam gear marks at same time and have timing belt, cam sprocket and crankshaft at their timing marks. Any idea what they mean on page EM-4 “(b)”? Still don’t get that...

 

I finally checked clearances. The exhaust valves are way bad. Thanks again 2JHiLux for encouraging me to do this. It ran good for the most part but it was headed towards not running good. Definitely was in trucks best interest to check and get this corrected.

 

Went to checking those shim thicknesses today using the schley 88250 tool. The pliers worked well but the tool that allows you to pull out shim didn’t. I guess it did for the first one but was a no go on next two I attempted. The wedge tool was too thick and was overriding the shim. Must be a milling/casting excess amount of material issue. One way or another it wasn’t working. Anyway I made this rather than altering the store bought tool. It’s just as strong but way thinner. So far it’s working... I’m new to this so I’m going slow and trying to be thorough.

 

I think it’s the thinner putty knife blade... it’s way thinner than their tool.

 

nice just orderd all parts to do this on my 2rz too....exciting.

 

This is a lot easier to do being that I was originally just doing water pump and timing belt. I have all the wires loose enough to have them gently bungee corded and out of the way. The wires and etc. are far worse on drivers side. Video I watched had them attempting one way and another to get Valve cover out and back in. I left the crank sensor and some other sensor (temp sensor maybe???) undone and had loads of extra room to work. Planned on doing valve covers as well because of oil leak. It looked like they probably messed up valve cover gasket as they were shoving it under the connected wiring in video. It’s better to take more off than not enough. I also believe in doing everything you can do while there.

 

All wires undone!!

 

Oh and on aft exhaust valve 6 the tool won’t work because of brake booster. A small pry bar worked very good though. It did not touch the business end of cam lobe and I’m changing that Shim anyway.

I also placed paper towels in between the cylinders to keep gravity from gobbling up something I needed to keep out of oil pan.... just need to make sure that I get them out.

 

Very good. Next you can start charging money to do it. It's a job I wouldn't trust a dealer doing.


Maybe by the time we get a travelling kit to float around more people will be comfortable with it.

 

Boy ain’t that the truth... and all because the clocks ticking and the poor mechanic has to do as many as he can to make good money... rush rush rush at our expense. Always hated those car shows when they did a customers ride and had a deadline to meet. They would do whatever to get it done fast and get your cash. Liked the shows but would hate to be their customer.

 

Bought a new set of EL-Cheap-O brand Pry Bars at Walmart today so I could alter the smaller one in old set. Yesterday it worked on exhaust number 6 sort of but today I had to alter it more to check intake number 6. Also had a fiasco in that wedge tool was a little too close to shim when I pulled it out on exhaust number 5 so wedge went into cup. Pry Bar came in handy there also. I was able to make sure that I got wedge tool on outside edge of cup to reinstall shim Finally and shim went in... now it’s time to figure out what new shims I’ll be needing. Here is how much I needed to alter Pry Bar. Another tool I needed today that I need to order New one of is this. I used it to push shim back into cup. Really handy, strong tool. That didn’t damage surface of shim. Had to do some manipulating with it several times.

 

Oh and unless there was something way different on my Tacoma than others that wedge tool from Schley didn’t work on my truck. You will definitely want to trace out their tool on thin bladed putty knife.

 

Done for the day!!