sempaipaul

Guys,

I am finishing all kinds of cleaning/painting/vacuum line change out/hose change out/venturi delete work and as I am going to put my manifold back on I noticed that one of my valves out of the tree looks like this:



Is this normal or, is this a definition of a "dropped valve"

Could I have pushed it down accidentally during cleaning out of that area?

Van

The way a 4-stroke engine works, the intake valves and exhaust valves open at different times during the engine's rotation (to let air in and let exhaust out) - each valve is open for approximately a quarter stroke. To make a 4-cylinder engine run smoothly, the timing of each cylinder is staggered.

Because of this, one of the 4 intake valves will *always* be somewhere in its cycle (same with exhaust). You just happen to be looking at the valve that's open.

Van

P.s. The bigger risk is that some of the dirt, grime and debris fell down that open valve during your cleaning and could cause scoring to the cylinder walls when you start the engine up. It's always a good idea to the intake (and exhaust) ports with masking tape to make sure no foreign matter gets in there.

sempaipaul

Ok sounds good. Thanks guys. There was tape. This was right after I took it off to put the manifold back on.

Thanks
Paul