Valve Clearance Specs - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

ibedgen · 11-16-2009, 09:50 PM

I have a 97 Corolla with the 1.8L engine and 125,000 miles. The valves have never been adjusted. Can anyone tell me what the clearances need to be on the intake and exhaust sides.

The car barely passed smog on high HC and I suspect this may be part of the problem.

Thanks.

trife96 · 11-16-2009, 10:32 PM

Sure, on a cold engine....

Intake .15-.25mm

Exhaust .25-.35mm

Check with thickness guage. record how much it's off. First check these valves.
Cylinder 1 Exhaust and Intake
Cylinder 2 Intake only
Cylinder 3 Exhaust only

Turn the crank once and align the crank pully groove with "0" on the timing belt cover.

Check only specific valves.
Cylinder 2 Exhaust only
Cylinder 3 Intake only
Cylinder 4 Exhaust and Intake

***zythr*** · 11-17-2009, 09:35 AM

Don't you have to use shims to adjust the valves?

ibedgen · 11-17-2009, 09:58 PM

Thank you for the clearances.

Yes, you do need shims to adjust the valves. You need to know what to aim for regarding clearances and I didn't have that info. Now I can get the proper shims to meet the specs.

Bitter · 11-18-2009, 07:18 AM

please let us know how much they were out at 125k. i've not heard of them going very far out, people usually only re-shim if the head is off for other work.

ibedgen · 11-21-2009, 08:40 PM

Well, I thought I would share the results of the valve clearances at 126,000 miles. All the clearances were within spec. They were all in the upper half of the tolerance range but still within specs.

I was hoping the high HC in the smog check would be related to this. Now I need to figure out what else it could be.

InfInIty13X · 11-22-2009, 02:00 AM

Maybe the charcoal purge canister is faulty? It's just a guess. High HC would be a rich running condition no? I'm not very good with emissions. Fuel isn't burning fully, the catalyst isn't breaking the HCs down... we don't have testing in AL so I have nil experience in it but I'm still trying to flex that muscle.

Bitter · 11-22-2009, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibedgen

Well, I thought I would share the results of the valve clearances at 126,000 miles. All the clearances were within spec. They were all in the upper half of the tolerance range but still within specs.

I was hoping the high HC in the smog check would be related to this. Now I need to figure out what else it could be.

glad to hear that they were in spec!