How will I know what shim i need?

I realized something as i am aproaching reassembly. before i took the head apart i measured the valve clearance and on alot of the valves i could not slip even the smallest feeler between the cam and the bucket. now how will i know what kind of a step down ill need for each valve that was touching.

it couldn't have been to bad off, there was no loss of power before i took her apart = not like loss of compression would feel like.

so without spending a small fortune in guessing wich shims ill need. where would be a good place to start?

btw i have shim under buckets. so cams gota come off to replace shims >.<

thanks in advance!

=-John

are buckets/cams still in head?
figure what cleance you already have and subtract from what you need.

thats the problem , i had no clearence to measure

which way were lobes pointed,would buckets spin at all?
were any of them checkable with a feeler gauge?

if all else fails i guess you could remove the shim and reinstall bucket and measure clearance.
subtract suggested clearance from what you have to get a ballpark number

Good Luck! Patience!
I hate when this happens!

@ plummen

the lobes were pointed directly away from the bucket when i attempted to measure, and yes 2 or 3 of the clearences were within spec the rest were so close i couldnt fit the smallest feeler in the gap wich was like .08mm if i remember right

install with no shims is a great idea, will the raised spot in the inside of the bycket make contact with the valve stem? cause if it touches the retainer ill get a false reading right?

like i said its gonna be a ballpark number,or you could install one of your loose ones in there to get an idea

Treewizard wrote:

@ plummen

the lobes were pointed directly away from the bucket when i attempted to measure, and yes 2 or 3 of the clearences were within spec the rest were so close i couldnt fit the smallest feeler in the gap wich was like .08mm if i remember right

install with no shims is a great idea, will the raised spot in the inside of the bycket make contact with the valve stem? cause if it touches the retainer ill get a false reading right?

.08mm is .003" That's too thick of a feeler gauge to have for your smallest. Got to Sears and get a new set that goes down to .0015" [everything is dual stamped these days for metric / sae.

i was misaken, the smallest feeler i have is .038mm. my factory manual recomends a range of .08 - .18mm

a .08mm not fitting would mean its out of spec anyway right?

im putting the block back together tomorow, so might start fiddling with clearances then