valve adjustment question:

[speeder]

I have always checked and adjusted my valves one cylinder at a time, ie. intake/exhaust on cylinder 1, cylinder 2, etc....

What I was wondering is this: is there any harm or disadvantage to doing all of the intakes first, then all of the bottom (exhaust) valves? How about all of the left side cylinders, then all of the right?

I realize that someone might be wondering, "what is the point?" The reason is because my back is so bad that I can barely work on a car anymore, and the getting in and out from under the car is the worst. With an ltd. slip and an (attractive) assistant to tell me when the marks line up on the pully I could do all of the bottom ones in one operation on my back.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[real550A]

10-4 on the short skirt!
The only disadvantage I can see, is having to turn the engine over more revolutions w/o oil pressure to achieve TDC on each cylinder more than once. I'm paranoid about dry rings and cylinders!

[BGCarrera32]

BTDT, as long as you know where you are, it doesn't matter.

and the getting in and out from under the car is the worst

I mean no insult by this but...you do have a roller/creeper don't you?..it sure helps. Throw an old pillow on it too.

Also, beg borrow buy whatever a little air ratchet and compressor if you can. You'll zip the exhaust valve cover nuts off in like 1 minute, and almost all the ones on the intake except where the AC hoses get in the way. I bought mine on eBay, its the Husky wratchet that Home Depot sells for like $60. Anything you can do to save from the twisting on the back gets my vote...

[speeder]

Thanks, guys!

[Jeff Alton]

I usually do my intakes and exhauasts on two different days just because I do not always have enough time to do it all at once!

Jeff

[aigel]

There is no problem in changing the order in which you do this. My vote goes to outsourcing this job if it gives you that much pain. If you have some room, spring in for a lift. A great 6k pound lift can be had for around 2k. Do a search on Autopro6000. Unfortunately I don't have space for one. As soon as I get a bigger house I won't wait a day. Getting one in the bay area, probably not going to happen any time soon.

Cheers, George

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by aigel
. If you have some room, spring in for a lift. A great 6k pound lift can be had for around 2k. Do a search on Autopro6000.

I think a lift is a great idea..
It's like a prescription card cost.
911 = medicine ..... Ron

[pwd72s]

Yeah...my dream, a lift & a heated garage. Key-rap...I just turned 60. Getting soaked while scrubbing the bottom of a 911 on jackstands in 45 degree weather just ain't the fun it was 30 years ago...

[makaio]

You nailed that Ron.

[aigel]

I have a double car garage in a moderate climate. A small space heater makes it real comfy and there is plenty of space in my little paradise. I am not going to complain too much. But the next house I get will have at least 3 stalls and a lift. Otherwise I wont' move. My wife knows I am serious too. What I am seriously thinking about at this house is digging a pit. What do you think about pits? Is that nuts?

George

[makaio]

IMHO pits are the pits. George, just sell that place in the Bay Area and move on up North by me. You could probably buy a mansion up here, with all the garage space you need.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by aigel
What I am seriously thinking about at this house is digging a pit. What do you think about pits? Is that nuts?

Widebody has a pit to encompass a mid-rise lift.
Me to

[Hugh R]

One of the guys I talked to on the Mulholland Run last week (Tyson?) says he uses a remote starter switch on the starter and sets all the exhausts by watching the lobes of the cam. That way he doesn't have to keep getting up and down.

[aigel]

Originally posted by makaio
IMHO pits are the pits. George, just sell that place in the Bay Area and move on up North by me. You could probably buy a mansion up here, with all the garage space you need.

What would I do in Red Bluff? Gotta keep making $!

Thunder Hill may be in decent distance from Red Bluff, but Laguna Seca and Sears Point will be too far! Any decent AX events there? I think north norcal is the place to be for the retirement years when you can buy one of those RVs that holds 2 racecars and travel to the track of your choice.

George

[ChrisBennet]

Here's something I saved from Rennlist a couple of years ago:

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 23:22:22 -0700

Author: "John Larson"

Subject: [classic] Re: valve adjustment correct?

Body: Hi. Let's talk about valve adjustment for the benefit of the list. As a
Porsche tech of close to 30 years, I've done a bunch.
First, there are 2 basic ways of doing this, the way in the book, and the
easy (and VERY accurate) way. The official way is complicated and time
consuming, requiring you to be up and down several times, and looking for
marks that may not always be easily seen. In your case, the marks were even
a bit confusing. We'll start there.
Z1 is the mark between the letter "Z" and the number "1". The other mark is
of no consequence here. The next TDC mark is 120 degrees along the circle,
and the last mark is another 120 degrees after that. Other marks may
include the 3 timing marks and the "FE" mark, used to set the MFI pump
timing. You not only have to set the engine to each of these TDC marks in
turn, you have to do it TWICE, and you have to find which of two possible
cylinders you're on. Wiggle the valves, look at the rotor, whatever. While
you don't have to be EXACTLY on the mark, the closer you are the better.

On to the easy way, one regularly used on British and Japanese cars, and
Volvos as well. Works on EVERYTHING. You jack the car up, just like the
factory method. For our use, we're going to hook up a starter button, or a
wire with a switch in it, between the battery post on the starter and
terminal 51, the activator terminal. Hit the button a couple of times to
assure it works. You've drained the oil and removed the lower valve covers.
We'll worry about the upper ones later. Watching the #6 exhaust rocker
(hey, you've gotta start somewhere, and it's right there next to the
starter), hit the starter button repeatedly in short bursts until that
rocker pad is on the highest point of the cam lobe. It's easy to see, but
you might want to go around twice the first time to help you see how it
looks. Move over to the other side, check and adjust the #3 exhaust valve,
the one straight across. Once you've done that, rock another valve open.
Might as well rock the #5 exhaust valve, it's the next in line and being
organized has its advantages here. Move across and check/set the #2 exhaust
valve. Do the other 4. Might want to go around twice, it's easy and it
helps you learn the feel and the procedure. Wipe down and clean the cam
tower surface, clean the covers, and install the cam covers over those nice
new gaskets. I like the gray ones. Use the new nuts and washers that come
in the kit.

Keep the car at a nice working height. Remove the top covers, leaving the
spark plugs in, and adjust the intake valves just like you did the exhaust
valves. Before you reinstall the covers and the nice new gaskets, pull the
plugs if you're going to replace them or do a compression test.
Why did we wait to do the plugs? For two reasons. First, with the plugs
out the engine turns over too fast to make it easy to stop it on the tip of
the lobe. Second, the plugs often shed carbon particles when they're
removed and those little bits fall into the gap of the open valve, causing a
false reading with the feeler gauge and making it difficult to get an
accurate adjustment. With the plugs out, there's no compression to blow
those little suckers out either. You get it back together, fire it up, and
you may have one (or more) horrendously loose valve(s), meaning you have to
remove that (or those) lower cover(s) and do it all over again. I'm not
making this up, BTW, we discussed it in P-car school, those 29 long years
ago. Same thing happens with the official technique as well.
This technique works with every cam grind, every engine. I use it on
Rabbits, 356s, 914s, 911s, everything. It's fast, really accurate, and easy
on the old back. After 30 years, the climbing up and down gets really old,
trust me. The clearance is ALWAYS exactly measured from the center of the
lowest point of the cam lobe, the base circle. You don't have to look at
those hard-to-see little lines (a definite plus on a 914/6!), you don't have
to look at the rotor, and you don't have to get up and down a thousand
times.
Congratulations, BTW, Jim, on doing your first valve adjustment. It's the
first and most important step in tuning (and even diagnosing) a 911 engine.
From there, everything else is a breeze. I hope this little note will make
your next one even easier and more accurate. I also hope it helps the rest
of the list as much as it has me.

[makaio]

Originally posted by aigel


Thunder Hill may be in decent distance from Red Bluff, but Laguna Seca and Sears Point will be too far! Any decent AX events there?

Your right, Laguna is a trek from here. As for Auto-X, there's a club out of Redding I run with. Non marque specific type club, just a bunch of guys that like to dice it up in the cones. Most people probably wouldn't like running with them though, the turn out is usually less than 35 people, so you get to run 6-8 times or more, before 1-2pm in the afternoon.

[speeder]

Thank you for the responses! I am printing out the post to read at breakfast in short while. I know, it's already noon, haven't even walked the dog yet, but hey, it's Saturday!

All advice will be taken to heart, particularly Noah's!