i searched and havent really heard anyone checking or adjusting the valve lash after installing the new knockoff cams. i checked mine with a feeler guage after i installed them and it was wayyy tight and wasnt able to fit the specs in the fsm..

Valve clearance for checking (Cold):
Intake
0.26 - 0.34 mm (0.010 - 0.013 in)
Exhaust
0.29 - 0.37 mm (0.011 - 0.015 in)

my valve springs are hr's double shimmed with hr retainers.
im goin to buy a micrometer tomorrow and play around with the lifters to try and get it within factory specs.

my questions is do you guys have any other suggestions other playing with everything to get correct clearances??

*also the intake and exhaust lifters are different thicknesses from what i gather correct??

thanks

 

I've installed the Ebay knockoff cams, and i used a set of offset feeler gauges from Sears to check all valve lash settings, and found everything to be within +/- .001 of standard. The correct feeler gauge makes a big difference - one with a 45* angle in it makes checking lash much easier.

If you can't get close enough, you will have to figure out replacements for the buckets - that's how you set the valve lash - they come in many sizes and cost about $15.00 each. The procedure is in the FSM.

Good luck.

 

Swapping buckets or shaving material from the top of the valves are your only options. I've always been concerned by the fact that more people don't check this, especially with knock-off's.

 

ill toy around what it and see what i can come up with. i highly doubt i did but ill check and make sure i didnt switch intake and exhaust buckets

yea i never hear of people checking it lol. o well..

 

Valve lash should definitely be checked. I did mine with feeler gauges.

 

I know this is going to sound stupid, but double check that you don't have the exhaust and intake cams switched up if you are only 1/2way through the install.

I've installed the e-bay cams as well, and one of 4 cams were perfect, some of the other 3 were pretty out there.

The intake and exhaust ARE different width, as well as some (exhaust?) could be one of two width as well, however last time I was at nissan getting shims I was told they were now lumped all into only one size he even showed me in fast, so I would try to go into the dealer with your own part numbers if I were you. Also, don't forget that you can switch shims around, meaning if you have 5 that are out of spec you might be able to use some of those 5 to get 3 within spec, at around $20 a pop those things can add up.

 

ill post pics tomorrow of my heads to make sure i got the cams right

im going to make sure i didnt switch buckets which im hoping i did because at that price id be hurting.

QUESTION: if i have cams already installed how do i rotate them so i can get the lobes facing up so i can check lash on other valves?? obviously id have to have it sideways so i dont *uck up my valves..

 

You don't want them facing up, you want them pointing at eachother at a 45* angle, I THINK on some cylinders when thy are facing up it starts opening the valves on the cylinder next to it or something and it flexes the cam, there's something about it that throws it off if you don't do it properly: ie pointing at eachother.

If you are careful you won't bend the valves, when you get to the point you can't turn it any more slip the crank pulley on and rotate the crank by hand., or if you don't feel comfortable doing that than set both banks + the crank in the #1 tdc position and rotate the cams 1/4 turn and the crank 1/2 turn, if you still don't feel comfortable doing that than you can always take the extra time and bolt the primary chain back up, but that's unnescassary work imho. Having the spark plugs out and the secondary chains and sprockets slipped on makes all of this alot easier.

 

some pics of cams installed. these are in correct rite KRZ?

 

yes they are in correctly, easiest way to tell for me was the cam sensor nubs, i don't know why but I forgot about that- they won't interchange bank to bank because of the distance between cam journals.

However, not straight up (as mentioned in PM), I'll cut hoste and post it, brb.

 

nevermind, I'm not going to bother, regardless of fsm it's located valveclearance>inspection...... make sure the nose of the #1 blah blah blah.

Plus, now I see, you have the heads off

when rotating the cams (secondaries on) reach a point where exh. is coming down and int. is going up, when they are in synch it's easy to see when they are pointing at eachother, but it's not straight up, it's more like a 45*.

 

didnt get to pick up a micrometer today. ill scoop one up tomorrow and mess around with cams to see if clearance gets larger. if not ill yank everything and check all the buckts and theyre sizes. dunno wut else to do but ill keep u updated if i have any Q's. thanks again KR

 

Don't forget to write down the specs of all of them, obviously the ones that are off, but even the ones that are within spec so you know if you might be able to switch up some shims.

 

alright i got good news and i got bad news....

the bad
removed and measured all the buckets and they varied a decent amount ( i was quite suprised).
so i thought for $hits and giggles i shoved all the smallest buckets in the intake valves on the one head. bolted the cam in and still have 0 room to get a feeler gauge in there. which totally fk'n blows because i have no idea wuts wrong.

the good
i was like theres no way im the only one with this frigg'n problem so a threw in the oem cam for that same spot on the head and... the same exact thing. so either my valves are totally jackd up or some other odd reason i cant figure out....

im happy theres nothing serious holding me up, and hopefully its something stupid. im gonna give dave b a ring tomorrow to see if him or any of his guys have any input.

i have no clue where to begin


EDIT: after thinking for a while.... whats the chances (since my heads were redone and valves grinded) of the valves being moved inward more since they did this causing the stem to stick up more?

they wouldve had to of ground off a $hitload of material wouldnt they?

 

You got a valve job? In that case, the valve lash absolutely needs to be reset. Most machine shops will grind material off the top of the valve to get the desired clearance.

 

A good machine shop, if you drop the heads off minus cams/buckets, will get your VQ heads back into, at the least, close proximity by grinding the stem.

 

looks like thats my new objective. dave b said the same. thanks guys