First valve clearance check

[dave255]

95 Camry, 5sfe, 247,000miles

Well yesterday I had to replace the valve cover gasket and reseal a leaky spark plug tube, so I figured while I'm in there, might as well check the valve clearances. I have never done this in the life of the vehicle so I was curious what I'd find, especially since the factory manual recommends doing this every 60k.

I was pleasantly surprised, the intake valves were all within spec. But a couple of the exhaust valves were a little out of range. (The acceptable range is listed as (.011" - .015")

EXHAUST VALVES:

Cylinder #1: .010" .010"

Cylinder #2: .010" .011"

Cylinder #3: .008" .010"

Cylinder #4: .011" .011"


Am I highly at risk for a burnt valve? Are these values something I should be immediately concerned about, or can I fix this at my leisure? Thanks for your input!

[fenixus]

I would say, fix them soon by replacing shims and making them all fall in the middle of the specs range.

It is not entirely clear if they get tightened or loosened over time, and actually depending on where the problem is they may go both ways, so put them in middle.

Haynes describes the math to calculate new shims thickness.

it's probably not an urgent issue, nothing will get screwed up instantly, so take your time to get it done right and once for good.

usually they do not require attention (since factory setting) until like 120k miles. I checked mine at 74k miles or so at they are all still in specs (not ideal of course).

next time I would use metric feeler gauges in millimeters, those SAE ones are not so accurate.

[dave255]

Thanks for the reply. I used the search feature before posting this and found several good threads, however there seems to be a lot of mixed information out there about how critical valve clearance is, what the risks/benefits are, how often it should be checked, whether it should ever be checked at all, etc.

[fenixus]

yup, I had the same problem. many threads and lots of conflicting information about that.

I think even though yours are out of specs a little already, it's not critical to fix them like today, however it is important to get them done in near future to avoid more costly problems. Don't push the car to its limits when driving with valves out of spec.

Haynes calls for valve clearance check every 60k miles

usually there is no need to adjust anything until after 120k miles or so, I wouldn't even bother checking it every 60k miles unless you suspect some trouble and have loud valve train.

Originally Posted by dave255

Thanks for the reply. I used the search feature before posting this and found several good threads, however there seems to be a lot of mixed information out there about how critical valve clearance is, what the risks/benefits are, how often it should be checked, whether it should ever be checked at all, etc.

[agni]

Originally Posted by dave255

95 Camry, 5sfe, 247,000miles

Well yesterday I had to replace the valve cover gasket and reseal a leaky spark plug tube, so I figured while I'm in there, might as well check the valve clearances. I have never done this in the life of the vehicle so I was curious what I'd find, especially since the factory manual recommends doing this every 60k.

I was pleasantly surprised, the intake valves were all within spec. But a couple of the exhaust valves were a little out of range. (The acceptable range is listed as (.011" - .015")

EXHAUST VALVES:

Cylinder #1: .010" .010"

Cylinder #2: .010" .011"

Cylinder #3: .008" .010"

Cylinder #4: .011" .011"


Am I highly at risk for a burnt valve? Are these values something I should be immediately concerned about, or can I fix this at my leisure? Thanks for your input!

I had the same problem last month - discussed in this thread. I never was able to find out whether or not I was in danger of burning a valve, but I went ahead and adjusted them for peace of mind. A few suggestions for when you do change them, if you plan on doing it yourself:
Just remove the camshaft instead of trying to depress the lifters and pop the shims out from beneath the cam lobes. You will save yourself a lot of frustration. Because of the suction pressure created by a tight seal, I found it kind of difficult to pry out the shims even while holding the lifters in my hand. Also, the shims are kind of pricey (in my opinion). You might consider grabbing a bunch of them from a salvage yard. If you grab about 30 or so (just remove the exhaust cams off of 4 cars), you're bound to have the ones you need

[JohnGD]

Take cylinder #3's .008 as an example, if Toyota adjusted them all to midrange, then it takes 49,400 miles for that valve to move .001. I'm not sure if the wear accelerates as is the case with brake pads, but you have time. It's not like something you have to do tomorrow or next week.

On the other hand, .008 is about 27% under spec. I'd adjust them all to .013 or .014. And if possible do all the valve stem seals with a Fel-Pro kit. Toyota used cheap seals for the intakes, and when Gen 4 cranked up the cylinder head temperature there were a lot of blue smoke startup complaints.

Originally Posted by dave255

95 Camry, 5sfe, 247,000miles

Well yesterday I had to replace the valve cover gasket and reseal a leaky spark plug tube, so I figured while I'm in there, might as well check the valve clearances. I have never done this in the life of the vehicle so I was curious what I'd find, especially since the factory manual recommends doing this every 60k.

I was pleasantly surprised, the intake valves were all within spec. But a couple of the exhaust valves were a little out of range. (The acceptable range is listed as (.011" - .015")

EXHAUST VALVES:

Cylinder #1: .010" .010"

Cylinder #2: .010" .011"

Cylinder #3: .008" .010"

Cylinder #4: .011" .011"


Am I highly at risk for a burnt valve? Are these values something I should be immediately concerned about, or can I fix this at my leisure? Thanks for your input!

[Stillrunning]

Given the closeness of those readings the first thing I'd do is mic your feeler gauges. You cannot rely on part store feeler gauges to be accurate. I have seen cheap gauges out .002 - .003.