theiceman

Well I started the valve adjust .. didn't get very far , then again I am not too motivated to rush. I figure I will be going to Hershey on Saturday anyway so will not be using the car this weekend. Got all of the hoses and wires out of the way. got three out of the 4 valve covers off.

The fourth one is stuck solid. unbelievable. ALLmost like it s glued on. i got a putty knife under the lower edge and cracked it so the oil can escape but the rest it really stuck. No way to get the knfe in the upppe edge. no room. it is the lower passanger side. maybe a will try again tonight.

Pete is it okay to block the oil return tubes and use some brake cleaner to clean the area up before doing the work ?

I figure I iwll take my ime with this. i have the tool, the blade , I just need to work on the patience.

MUSSBERGER

Ice I'm bearing my soul here by sharing my stupidity.

About 5 years ago I attempted to do my own valves. How hard can it be right? Bought the special gauge, extra blades and new gaskets. At the first one the blade broke and fell somewhere I couldn't see it. Talk about panic! All I could think about was embarrassment and dollars signs. I was able to get the broken piece out with a magnet and before I f'd anything else up I quickly buttoned the thing back up. Took it to the shop and let someone more skilled than me do it properly. From that day on I stay out of engines.

Steve

MDL

Ice, I think i would put the valve covers back on before spraying any brake cleaner. You don't want all that crud in your valve train. I use brake cleaner before adjusting my valves...works better than spraying a degreaser and then spraying with water. I have a small aluminum pan that I sit on the garage floor to catch the crud.

Peter Zimmermann

ice: I love Steve's story - I can't tell you how many times that I've gone looking for a piece of broken blade with a magnet!

Yes, you can use brake cleaner to do a little clean-up, it won't hurt anything. Many years ago I would drive really grungy cars to what we used to call the "quarter car-wash," that's now the $8.00 car wash, and spray off the underside with hot-soapy water before taking things apart. I also like to give the trough below the intake covers a good cleaning before taking the upper covers off, Simple Green or Breeze work the best for that because brake cleaner will damage painted surfaces. At the shop we used Safety-Kleen, and the covers came out like new, but with today's solvents it's really difficult to get parts that clean. I think that Gunk still makes Engine Brite, but it probably doesn't work as well as it used to either (it used to work good on greasy wet areas, but not that well on dried, caked-on stuff). I would try that first if you can get it where you're at - the negative is that you have to use a hose to rinse the area that you're working on.

Ian Ledger

For the valve cover just tap it sideways repeatedly with a plastic hammer the use of a putty knife is nor a good idea .
Ian

theiceman

actually guys the outside is clean and fine , I was talking about inside where all the valvaes and adjustments are. I guess I could work with all the oil in their if I have to , and just wipe out the excess.

This should be fun ... .004 .... any other tips guys ?

Amber Gramps

Valves = easy

spark plugs = nightmare

just have lots of toxic cleaners around to get rid of the oil.

theiceman

Hi Doug

Actually my plugs come out very easy. I take them out a couple of times a year ..the SC must be easier than the carrera for access. I was reading that you can actually do two valves for each crank position . Did you do it that way Doug ?

Peter Zimmermann

Latex gloves! If you do any cleaning you must be absolutely, positively, sure that you don't get any loose crud in the cam/rocker areas - I usually don't mess with anything in there, it doesn't hurt anything until it's disturbed.

theiceman

then I iwll probably just wipe out the excessoil and go with that ..

red67

i did a valve a adjustment a little while back iceman.
i had a similar problem with the bottom right valve cover (same one as yours - guess it must get the hottest over the years). the gasket was very dried out and almost sealed solid to the engine. quite a few swear words were excercised there. its a bummer because once its off you should take a lot of care getting those old crusty gaskets off the cover. using knives or any sharp metal or sand paper could damage the machined covers but they're so hard to get off so i whacked it like ian.
To get them clean and flush again i didnt have any correct solvents like pete properly recommends, so i took a long time with hot soapy water, a cloth and some serious scrubbing (the long boring drawn out way not to do it most likely) . hope that helps. i never used the special valve feeler guage tool, i just bent a regular feeler guage, but have now ordered one off pelican and am curious to hear how that works out for you. have fun and good luck.

theiceman

.. Thanks .. I was surprised as the cat ,,er ,,, was ,,, on the other side so thought thT would be the tough one.. but holy cripes. i am going back at it again tonight. I maight take the valve covers to a machine shop and checked for flatness and milled if necesaary. We will see.

just to confirm , my new gaskets go on dry without sealent right ?

red67

i didnt use sealant and they dont leak at all, use all new nuts also. i torgue wrenched the nuts on to the manual recommended torque setting (which actually didnt seem that tight).

Peter Zimmermann

Gaskets - dry. New nylok nuts & high quality sealing washers (dull gray, not shiny silver). Torque = 18 lb/ft. after snugging them all by hand with 3/8" drive tools.

Amber Gramps

The "kit" from pelican was great. I haven't lost a drop. My gaskets came off clean in full or in large sections. I think I did one valve at a time and went around twice. then I went back around again and checked them all. I had to pinch the belt and turn the fan with a socket. I only used the cleaner on the face of the head and the valve covers, not inside the head. Remember that the oil with cause the foot to stick to the rocket and make you thnk you have to keep turning the foot. You shouldn't have to turn the screw more that a full revolution. I found a tool for the screw at a swapmeet that has four different flat blade screwdriver tips in one set at differant angles. I'll post a picture when I get home (if I can find it.)