2003 2AZ-FE valve tappet buckets worn on "inside"

[cayucos]

At 126,000 miles our 2003 Camry 2AZ-FE engine was making some unusual noises. Long story short: the valve clearances were checked in June 2010 and in December 2010 they were checked again and one exhaust valve had way too much clearance (making extra noise) .

After head removal and machine work it was found that wear had occurred on the underneath of the valve tappet bucket between the bucket and the top of the valve stem.

Three of these buckets on various valves will have to be replaced (including an intake valve).

This system uses no shims and the entire camshaft has to be removed to change things to bring this clearance into spec.

This is a high performance little 2.4 liter DOC 4valves/cylinder engine that gets 34mpg highway and my wife loves the damned thing but this head job is going to cost a chuck of change and Toyota should have hardened the underneath of the buckets like they did the top that the camshaft runs on. They sort of screwed this up or the other explanation is this motor has some flawed buckets and that causal factor I have never heard about.

Car is in the shop and the wife is using my American Iron, GMC, 2000 truck (before government motors) with hydraulic lifters that can not get even 20mpg. She is pissed.

[littleslim1474]

The buckets are what clear the valve clearance. Toyota has different bucket to meet different clearance values. If it wore on the inside and damaged the stem is a little odd but there's always those few cases. And the 2.4 is a great little engine

[cayucos]

There was no damage to the top of the valve stems.

The wear and damage was to the underside of the buckets which I have been told are not hardened.

I'm getting the damaged (worn) buckets back if you would like to inspect them.