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Re: Valve Clearances? (archive)
[ Follow Ups ] [ 3-series (E30) Message Board ] [ Msg. Board FAQ ]
Posted by Thomas Goodwin on June 28, 2000 at 10:35:51:

In Reply to: Re: Valve Clearances? posted by Tom Knowles on June 26, 2000 at 18:25:24:

: When in doubt, set 'em loose.. a little valve noise is better than burned valves. If you drive hard often, this is especially true. A rough idle after adjustment is indicative of valves not closing completely (too tight).
: My opinion
: Tom


That makes me curious because even with a gap, the valve still doesn't close completely? That doesn't sound right to me. Seems like the force of the spring pushing the valve back up and hitting the rocker would cause the rocker to bump away far enough for the spring to close the valve completely. I could understand if I were adjusting the ecentric to the point that it is touching the valve tightly...I can understand why that would cause the valve to not close all the way, but we're talking about a gap here if I'm not missing something. What I don't understand also is that some people tighten to .008 and their car runs smooth, I tighten to .010 and I get a rough missing idle, and then some others adjust to .012 and get not quite so rough of an idle, but more valve noise. At .010, I still get a LOT of valve noise and it makes me think that there is something wrong. It just doesn't sound right. Personally, I feel like setting them...yet again (#6 go around for me in under a month) but this time to .008 to see how that idles. My car is an 89 325iS and according to bently and BMW it's supposed to be .010....010 just doesn't seem to do the deed correctly in my opinion.

I'm no rocket scientist and I have very little knowledge of cars to begin with, but I know that when you set a vehicle to factory specs, it's supposed to run prefectly (taking into account that everything else is fine of course). My car at .010 misses horribly every now and then (---hum---THUMP---hum---). I can stand a rough idle (I'm accustomed to it after 2 years of driving a performance built Mustang GT), but not misfire, that should just not happen.

Thomas Goodwin

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