Shim Under buckets?

[wld_tony]

Has anyone used these,
I have reach this point with my build and want to know the procedure on placing them in with 312 and 292 cams.

What i have in my hands are 7mm lash caps(outside to outside) and buckets.

From what i can figure out, is the lash caps are placed on the valve stem,
then the bucket, then followed by the cams,

Thanks for the input.

[Ironhead]

Your sequence is correct.

The trick is figuring out the valve clearances. You need to get them close enough to take a measurement with a feeler gauge, the calculate the corrections you need.

Hate to tell you, but you will probably have to pull the cams a couple times to get it right.

[Ron ///Man]

Yep, you're correct, then measure your clearances, and you get to take it all apart to change the lash caps to the correct thicknesses!

[wld_tony]

Oh what a fun job,
Not haha,

There must be a reason why i was sent 7mm valve lash all around,
hopefully there wont be any adjusting.

[Ironhead]

Oh what a fun job,
Not haha,

There must be a reason why i was sent 7mm valve lash all around,
hopefully there wont be any adjusting.

Dude....you're scaring me a little here.

The 7mm is the diameter of the valve stem. Common sizes are 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, etc. Most S14s are 7mm, hopefully yours is. The lash cap fits on the end of the valve like a....um....cap. Thus 6mm caps won't work with 7mm valves, etc.

The part that determines the valve clearance is the thickness of the cap. And I absolutely guarantee you adjusting will be needed. Probably to every valve at least once. You can either determine the thickness you need and order them, (from Schrick or VAC or wherever), or you can grind them to the thickness you need if you have the equipment (you probably don't....precision is essential.) You will at a minimum need a good micrometer to measure cap thickness to get through this. The lash caps you have are all probably just a variety of relatively thick caps, since whomever sold them to you has absolutely no way of knowing what thicknesses you need.

The problem, is that if all your caps are thick, when you install everything there will be no valve clearance (the cam base circle will be resting on the bucket) and thus you will have no way of taking a measurement and you won't know which way to go. It would help if you had an assortment of relatively thin caps to get started. Then you can get a feeler gauge in and figure out where you stand....

I don't mean to talk down to you, but unless you really know what you are doing here, get someone to help you. Timing the cams properly is critical also, and you will need to do it multiple times as you figure out the valve clearances. If you make a mistake at this stage you can do some serious damage.

[M3 Adjuster]

I just did this three weekends ago.

Correct. place the lash caps on the valve stems.. The buckets go on top, then install the cams and timing chain gears.... then you will need to turn the motor over by hand to confirm

- no piston to valve contact
- what your base initial lash is

Hopefully you have a number of different valve lash caps of differing thicknesses.

You will need to measure the initial valve lash, and then if any are off, you will need to make the appropriate calculations, remove the cams, and then install the appropriate lash caps, reinstall the cams and gears... lather... rinse.. repeat.

My feeler gauges run from .005" to .032 ".... on my first install, about 4 of the 16 valves were in spec, and the other 12 needed to be changed. I would start off with the minimum thickness valve lash caps that you have... in this fashion, you will have a gap that you can measure, and can increase the size of the lash caps from there. Using this method, I was able to get my valve lash set on the third try.

If you start off with valve lash caps that are too large, it is possible that you may not even be able to get your minimum thickness feeler gauge in to measure the lash... if that happens, you will have to *guess* at what the proper size smaller caps are, and you will have added another attempt.

[wld_tony]

I should off read what i wrote,
I meant to say that the lash caps are all 7mm,
thanks Ironhead,
I was talking to Chris at VAC and i can order caps or even custom caps
at any size i need, so now its all understood clearly.
Much appreciated.

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I just did this three weekends ago.

Correct. place the lash caps on the valve stems.. The buckets go on top, then install the cams and timing chain gears.... then you will need to turn the motor over by hand to confirm

- no piston to valve contact
- what your base initial lash is

Hopefully you have a number of different valve lash caps of differing thicknesses.

You will need to measure the initial valve lash, and then if any are off, you will need to make the appropriate calculations, remove the cams, and then install the appropriate lash caps, reinstall the cams and gears... lather... rinse.. repeat.

My feeler gauges run from .005" to .032 ".... on my first install, about 4 of the 16 valves were in spec, and the other 12 needed to be changed. I would start off with the minimum thickness valve lash caps that you have... in this fashion, you will have a gap that you can measure, and can increase the size of the lash caps from there. Using this method, I was able to get my valve lash set on the third try.

If you start off with valve lash caps that are too large, it is possible that you may not even be able to get your minimum thickness feeler gauge in to measure the lash... if that happens, you will have to *guess* at what the proper size smaller caps are, and you will have added another attempt.

Thank you also.
Ill see where i stand with the caps i have, and go from their.