valve adjustment???

[nomad]

Any tricks? Was thinking of removing the cam sprocket and tying it up with a piece of wire to my engine hoist. I have done that with single overhead cam engines to keep from loosing the timing.
I imagine that very thin shims are not available so will have to measure each shim pack and obtain suitable ones. Don't have a surface grinder at my disposal.

Kurt

[nmauduit]

I would suggest to read the manual and go by it, more to risk than to gain trying to go by feel there...

I personnally don't try to maintain dizzy timing, I find it faster to reset the dizzy after the camshafts are regapped.

Also, I would not try to mess with "grinding" shims without a proper lapping machine so that the end result is parallel (and still)... imho better to carefully measure each gap and order the suitable missing ones for getting a properly gapped engine: not only will it run smoother and better but will last longer... Proper shims are harder than mild steel, and if there is a dipple where the valve stem pushes it is better to replace it to avoid risking gapping with a stem not sitting square flat on the shim (one can turn it around in a pinch, but it won't last as much since it will soon deform in the other direction)

I always take the time to recheck the gaps after all has been put back in, torqued and run a heat cycle or two.

[mbell]

Last time I did it i zip tied the chain to the cam sprockets. And used some pieces of dense foam through the holes in the sprockets and rested on cylinder head to allow me to remove the sprockets from the cam but keep everything reasonably close to the correct position. This avoided need to reset any of the timing.

[reb53]

Don't take any notice of etched on numbers as they will almost certainly be wrong if the shims have been ground in the past.

When measuring thickness ensure you measure to the bottom of any worn "dimples".
Each of the numerous times I've done mine I've found a bit of shuffling around will sort out a lot of the ones that need doing. Moving this one to there, and that one to there etc usually meant I'd only have a few that were wrong enough that I needed to either grind them down, or get new ones.
So basically you need to measure every one, note it down, and have a head scratch for a while......

Whilst the purists may scream I've never had problems reducing thickness by judicious use of wet and dry paper on a piece of glass.

And, no, you don't lose any case hardening by doing this as when I ran my hardness tester over a selection of shims, including at the bottom of the dimples, I found no differences in hardness anywhere suggesting they are through hardened.

Ralph.

[nomad]

Thanks, folks.

Ralph, if all else fails I have a good stock of Kasenit and have hardened quite a few antique gun parts. Could make valve shims if I had to. I doubt it would be worth the time.

Kurt

[bitsobrits]

Kurt,

When you figure out what you need, send me a list and I'll check my stock. 40 years of Elans has me with a few extra shims

[nomad]

Thanks, Steve. I'll do that!

Kurt