Another valve clearance question

Hey guys, wondering if anyone ever did this....

Doing a new project with my spectre 1983. My engine was pissing oil, and found another clean non leaking engine for 100$ with less miles on it. Told my self it's just cheaper than buying a gasket set.

So I cleaned it all and started checking valve clearance before painting the engine.

All valves where all to specs exept for exhaust #1... At .06mm

So decided to unscrew all camshaft brackets and reinstall them all upon torque specs..... Oooops....

Now all my valves are way too tight, can't even fit my smallest .04mm gauge in neither one of them.

Sooooo.... I was thinking... Instead of buying new shims (trial and errors, cause I can't even measure my clearance now),

COULD I JUST SHIM ALL MY CAMSHAFT BRACKETS WITH VERY THIN WASHERS?

Anyone ever done that?

That is a terrible idea. You'd be increasing the camshaft bearing clearance. The camshafts would be banging/bouncing around.

eric951turbo2 wrote: Hey guys, wondering if anyone ever did this....

Doing a new project with my spectre 1983. My engine was pissing oil, and found another clean non leaking engine for 100$ with less miles on it. Told my self it's just cheaper than buying a gasket set.

So I cleaned it all and started checking valve clearance before painting the engine.

All valves where all to specs exept for exhaust #1... At .06mm

So decided to unscrew all camshaft brackets and reinstall them all upon torque specs..... Oooops....

Now all my valves are way too tight, can't even fit my smallest .04mm gauge in neither one of them.

Sooooo.... I was thinking... Instead of buying new shims (trial and errors, cause I can't even measure my clearance now),

COULD I JUST SHIM ALL MY CAMSHAFT BRACKETS WITH VERY THIN WASHERS?

Anyone ever done that?

I'm sure that more than one person has done that before, but you're asking the wrong question. The right question would be "Would that work?'

jackleberry already gave you the right answer to that question.

Are you sure that you are measuring the clearances when the cam is in the right position - i.e. lobe pointing away - 180 degrees - from the shim/bucket?

I agree with jackleberry, but connected with that I'm confused as to how tightening down the bearing caps altered the valve clearances in the first place unless they were already loose and the cam shafts were already floating away from the lower bearing surface. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, but it seems to me there must have been a problem at outset and if all the valves are now tight against the cams, with the caps tightened, it seems that there could likely be a whole host of potential issues with the valves, valve seats, camshafts and camshaft bearings if the motor was run like that before you bought it. Had someone been dismantling the motor before you bought it? At best if the motor was running before with zero valve clearance there is likely to valve damage caused by the valves not seating when the motor gets warm. I feel a new gasket set on your original motor would have been the easier option here, you could be opening up a can of worms. I'd look at at least finding a way to compression test this "new" motor before going further, you could easily be out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I also don't know what the specs are for the exhaust valves on a Spectre, but 0.06 mm is only 0.0024" - which is tight, especially when measuring them in a cold engine.