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Hi all,
After adjusting my tappets to (inlet 0.15 & exhaust 0.20) I still have a bit of tappet noise, especially on startup, which disappears soon after. But even when warm, I think its still a bit noisy. Could it be a worn spring problem? At 190,000 she's still pretty a good motor with no oil burning or knocks. Any suggestions guys, or should I just turn up the radio?

Cheers Rick

On startup that would be low oil pressure. More of a big end style "knock"
How much sideways movement do your rocker arms have?

G'day Brumby Kid,
The noise doesn't really sound like big end, if I'm right that's more of a knocking noise. A definite ticking, that's why I 'm almost sure it's the rocker gear. From memory there was a bit of movement sideways.
Cheers

Are you sure the clearances you used are correct?

If you look up valve clearances on this site for a EA81, it lists them as .009-.011/.23-.27mm intake and .013-0.15/.33-.37mm exhaust.
That agrees with the figure I use.

Hi Tambox,
The Gregory's says 0.23-0.27 mm and 0.33-0.37mm. That's way to loose I think.

I use 4 thou hot and have done for 12 years - both inlet and exhaust. set at Gregorys suggestion and I had a chaff cutter. A mate never measured EA81's just got to op temp and wound in until they shut up,

Hehe would help if you specified which system your numbers are in. My memory says inlet .010" and exhaust .014"? Or is it the other way round...either way when I set mine to that it's noisy as all hell. Somehow got it down to a semi respectable level when hot and just left them.

See if any of the noise quietness when the oil light goes out. That will be low oil pressure.
Do you have the shim washers on the rocker shaft? There shouldn't be any sideways movement. That screwed mine up, meant that they changed after a few minutes of running and that there was unnecessary wear.
Also it depends on your cam grind if you have one as to what you use as your clearances.

Cheers Cam

Silver, that's mm

Rick.. I'd say the rockers have some wear on them, so you could get away with setting them to the lower level of the scale.

Inlet = 0.23mm (I'd even take that down to 0.2mm)
Exhaust = 0.33mm (again I'd drop this down to 0.3mm)

Just make sure you have the inlet and exhaust valves correctly indentified. From memory, the inlet are the ones on the most outer side of the head.

Thanks Paul,
I was a bit worried about setting them too tight, but I will use your suggested gap.
I do believe there is a bit of wear as you suggest.
Cheers Rick

Paul,
0.2 and 0.3mm, that's wafer thin isn't it mate?

if they are too tight you'll get a miss .....

scoobymine wrote:Paul,
0.2 and 0.3mm, that's wafer thin isn't it mate?

0.2 is 8 thou, 0.3 is 12 thou.

Not "wafer thin" at all.

Some of us set them at 4-6 thou hot.

Generally to allow for the worn "dips" in the rocker tips etc.

Maybe I'm not reading my feeler gauge correctly.

Rick.. please post a pic of your feeler gauges.

0.2mm doesn't sound like much but it's enough to make the valves close. As they wear, you'll need to adjust them again. Usually when you start loosing compression and/or like Jonno mentioned you'll start getting missing or engine shaking more than normal.